


All in the Golden Afternoon

by LottieHolmes



Category: Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler
Genre: M/M, Reincarnation, Science
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-14
Updated: 2015-06-30
Packaged: 2018-02-08 21:06:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 39,526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1956156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LottieHolmes/pseuds/LottieHolmes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sequel to Kuroshitsuji II. Following a moment of betrayal 100 years ago, Sebastian meets someone named Ciel that resembles his young master exactly in present day London.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Reincarnation

**Prologue:**

November 2012

The demon that went under the name Sebastian licked the last of the blood off his lips as he stood enjoying the taste, on a bustling street corner in London. He had just completed a contract and taken the soul which had unfortunately been a little substandard for his tastes. It had been a simple contract, much to his relief; he never wanted to the repeat the mess that contracting with a certain boy had caused. He was glad that it was dark so no one passing by would notice he had a trace of blood around his mouth. The lights of the city bathed the streets in an orange glow which distorted all visible colours so it was unlikely that the blood would be spotted.

As he was enjoying the faint aftertaste of the soul he had just digested, a new tantalising taste assailed his nostrils and he inhaled deeply, wondering what it was. As if to explain, a pedestrian walked into him and tripped over onto the ground in front of him.

Sebastian blinked in surprise before extending a hand to the person who he observed was a young male teenager dressed in a pair of black jeans and a plain navy blue hooded top with the hood down. The boy accepted his hand and Sebastian pulled him up and then saw the boy's face properly and promptly gasped.

The face resembled one of his former masters, Ciel Phantomhive exactly from skin colour to hair length.

The boy had a pale face, blue grey hair with a long fringe that partially covered a black fabric eye patch. The other eye was a cerulean blue which was looking at him puzzledly.

"Uh, sorry for walking into you and thanks for helping," he said and dusted off his jeans before turning to walk away.

Sebastian found that the voice was exactly the same although the words were not something that he would have associated with Ciel Phantomhive as they held a different cadence. In addition he could not imagine the Earl saying "thanks" or even thanking anyone for anything at all.

"Wait," he called out to the boy, unsure whether he was seeing and hearing right and wanting to check if it really was his young master. After all the boy had not reacted to seeing him at all.

The boy turned back, with a confused look on his face. "Yes."

"What is your name?"

If the name was something completely different then he would leave him alone. If it wasn't then… he didn't know what he would do.

The boy frowned which was a sensible reaction to being asked what his name was by a stranger.

"Ciel. I'm not telling a complete stranger my full name though."

Ciel ran off and so did the smell that had been taunting Sebastian's senses.

The scent of the boy's soul. The scent matched the smell of Ciel Phantomhive's soul just before he had attempted to take it on the island.

Was he being provided with a second chance to take it?

A mess of events had concluded with him killing any chance he had at taking the soul as he had literally killed his master.

* * *

Sebastian Michaelis, to give the name that his master had given him, had had a hellish time living in the underworld with no other demons for company aside from the puny brat that he was still unfortunately bound to and forced to cater to his every whim.

For example, despite the fact that demons did not need to eat, his master insisted on him performing the rigmarole of serving him morning tea, breakfast, elevenses, lunch, afternoon tea, and a five course dinner. All of these meals consisted of china teacups and plate and thin air. He wasn't even allowed to repeat the same type of tea twice.

In addition to that useless ritual he was ordered to dress the aforementioned brat every day even though his master never left the house. The house itself was an exact replica of the Phantomhive estate that his master had left behind on the surface. Sebastian had copied everything down to the last detail for the second time.

After 10 years of the pantomime; obeying all of his master's orders, dressing him and pretending to serve him tea and never being allowed to leave and meet with others of his own kind, Sebastian snapped.

On that fateful day he had been ordered to give his master a dance lesson- his feet had been squashed by the clumsy boy, then he had been instructed to re-wall paper every wall in the entire manor (he had also been told to make the wallpaper himself) and after he had been told that the new wallpaper clashed with the furniture and that he would have to do it again or make new furniture by himself.

At the point he had felt like he could simply not take any more of his mercurial master.

He had been starving for a long time as he had found that souls were more satisfying if you were mad with hunger and had originally believed that his contract would only take the maximum of a few years to fulfil. He had been correct about that. What he had not expected was to lose the soul as he was about to take it, have several fights with a rival demon over it, be double crossed by that demon and lose his master and lose the mouth watering soul that he had been cultivating and end up permanently bound by contract by a demon, subject to his every whim.

The condescending and smug looks that the frail looking boy always gave him whenever he was forced to say "Yes, my Lord" irritated him as well.

In a fit of anger he had torn of his master's head as the boy had been about to give him another order and he had thrown it down the staircase. His master, ever mindful of Sebastian trying to find a way to escape the contract, had ordered him not to ever drown, stab, strangle or shoot him, so he was well within his right and not going against orders to tear his head off. In any case a something like that would not kill a demon.

He had been expecting Ciel to wake up again with an annoyed expression on his face when he placed the head back on top of the headless body so it would heal and reattach itself.

The expected did not happen. The head fell off again and rolled away.

Sebastian had frowned in puzzlement and then rolled up the eyelid of the decapitated head's right eye to check if the contract symbol was still there.

It was not. What was more surprising was that both eyes were azure blue again.

His demon master was dead.

That same evening he had knocked down the house before using some of the rubble to construct a small tomb for the corpse. He had even carved a headstone. As he started down at the lifeless and soulless body that he had once fought hard to protect he wondered if he would ever be able to make a contract again with anyone after him.

Then he left the underworld for the human realm.

His only regret was that he had never tasted Ciel Phantomhive's soul.

The demon had taken the bait.

Ciel walked down the street to his house at a normal pace, not bothering to check whether or not he was being followed by the demon. He would be able to find that out later.

He turned up his driveway and walked up the steps before ringing the doorbell so his parents could let him in.

Sebastian followed Ciel home, always walking a few metres behind the boy in case he was spotted. Fortunately for him the boy was unsuspicious and had not changed pace or turned around at all. His eyebrows rose as he watched the boy walk up the driveway of a very familiar house.

He recognised it immediately as being the London townhouse that his young master had owned in the 19th Century. Although the street had changed completely the house was untouched and the exterior looked the same as the last time he had seen in 1889.

His already raised eyebrows rose further when he watched the front door open and a blonde haired woman step out. This blonde woman matched the portrait that he had seen of his former young master's mother exactly. It was one thing to meet a boy called Ciel that looked exactly like his former young master, but for the boy to have a mother that resembled his former master's mother was another thing.

What was going on?

As he pondered the answer to his question he strained his demon senses to hear their conversation.

"Ciel Phantomhive, why are you out so late?" the woman asked in an annoyed voice.

So he definitely had the same name as his former master… Sebastian thought to himself. Now he needed to learn why and how.

"Sorry mum," Ciel apologised. "I had another headache so I went out for a walk to clear my head."

Her gaze softened. "Next time, tell me first or leave a note. There are weird people that roam the streets at night, looking for people to prey on."

"I know. I walked into one that was just randomly standing in the middle of the pavement. He asked me my name. Creep."

The boy turned around to look straight at the bush that Sebastian had hurriedly ducked behind and smirked.

"That's why you should not stay out late by yourself. Come in before you catch a cold," his mother said and Ciel followed her inside.

Once Ciel had said goodnight to his father who was in his study working on a new product for their company, he went upstairs to go to bed. Instead of going to sleep after he turned his light off he used his mobile phone to contact his best friend and partner in crime, Alois Trancy.

"Did he follow me?" he asked as soon as Alois had picked up his phone.

"He did. He was so intent on stalking you that he didn't notice that he was being followed himself. Nice joke about the creep, I don't think he appreciated it."

Ciel smirked. "He wasn't supposed to."

He gained a reply a few seconds later.

So the boy's name was indeed Ciel Phantomhive and his mother was the spitting image of Rachel Phantomhive. He had seen reincarnated souls before, but them to be in the same mother and son relationship as last time and keep the same names as their ancestors was positively eerie. He would certainly need to do some snooping around.

Sebastian paused and reconsidered. Getting involved with the boy in the 19th century had ended up as a curse so it might be better if he did not get involved at all. But he had already stalked the boy and the temptation of being able to actually taste that delicious soul was too much.

He used the night to weigh up the benefits against the probability of previous events repeating again and eventually decided on a plan of action. He would do some research into the Phantomhive family and then try to persuade the boy, or trick him into making a contract with him which was the option that was more likely to work considering this cautious day and age where children were warned about talking to strangers.

In any case he missed the days of being the perfect butler for the human Ciel Phantomhive. He had enjoyed teaching and teasing the boy and all his contracts afterwards had felt dull and grey in comparison- possibly because they had all wanted money and material items and nothing exciting like having to stop a train with his hand, had happened in 113 years until now.

He would have to get the new Ciel Phantomhive to make a contract with him.

I have to get the demon to make a contract with me, Ciel thought to himself the next morning as he jammed his unhealthy breakfast- a slice of chocolate cake, into his mouth and left his house for his morning walk to his private school was very close by. He did his tie as he walked down the road and chewed cake.

His phone vibrated as he walked. It was the signal from Alois to alert him to the fact that the demon was following him. Just to be sure he dug the phone out of his pocket to read the message.

As he did so he felt a pair of hands cover his eyes and a familiar voice sing, "Guess who?"

"Hmm, Alois," he guessed pulled the hands off and turned round to face his best friend.

The playful blonde laughed and linked their arms as they walked.

"Correct! Ciel Phantomhive is a genius. I, Alois Trancy is clearly a dumbass."

"That part is right," Ciel replied with a smile. "Come on, we will be late if we don't hurry up."

That was interesting, Sebastian thought from his discreet position behind a nearby tree. The Trancy brat had also been reincarnated in this timeline. Who would come next, Lady Elizabeth?

Besides that, seeing the spitting image of his former master dressed in his school uniform, black shorts, blazer, striped tie and waistcoat reminded him of the time they infiltrated Weston College. The uniform was eerily similar. Was that a coincidence as well?

The number of coincidences was rising since he had bumped into the boy. He was going to have to do some research.

Half an hour later Sebastian located the local library through an open window without attracting any attention to himself and quickly found the local history section, which was conveniently right at the back. He ran his fingers along the spines, looking for "Phantomhive". The closest thing he found was The Rise and Fall of Nobility. He scanned the index and found "Phantomhive, Earls".

For the first few pages there was nothing that he hadn't known already about his former master's family. Then he came to a photo of the Ciel Phantomhive II and a man looked exactly like Earl Vincent Phantomhive.

The caption read: the latest Earl Phantomhive and his son Ciel. The pair have a strong resemblance to some of their ancestors.

Is it reincarnation or just a strong resemblance, Sebastian wondered in his head.

His thoughts were interrupted by an extremely familiar and high pitched feminine voice that summoned up the image of a certain flamboyantly gay redhead.

"Remember to keep as quiet as possible- it's a library. You're here to finish your history projects so we can finally stop visiting here every lesson."

"Says you, who spends most of the lesson in the erotic literature section," Alois Trancy's voice retorted.

Sebastian peeked through the gap in the bookshelves to check that he was indeed hearing Grell Sutcliff and Alois Trancy.

A man with long red hair dressed in a blindingly red suit and had green eyes framed by red glasses was standing in front of a class of pupils dressed in black blazers. His eyes fixed on the back of a short pupil with blue grey hair standing next to a blonde. He was positive that it was Ciel Phantomhive.

Was it really another coincidence that a Grim Reaper was his history teacher?

There was definitely a number of coincidences that could not be explained as just being coincidences. After all, there is no such thing as a coincidence, there is only inevitability.

Sebastian made up his mind, he was going to investigate the reasons behind the presence of the Phantomhive family that looked exactly like their 19th Century counterparts, Alois Trancy's doppelganger and finally the appearance of a Grim Reaper.

* * *

After Grell had finished issuing instructions about behavior, the students dispersed in pairs, Ciel Phantomhive with the Alois Trancy brat. Sebastian darted out of the local history section when he spotted a group of students heading towards his location. He dashed to a more secluded archive of books with tall bookshelves surrounding him in a circle and two comfy armchairs. He looked up at the sign above him which explained the seclusion:

Erotic Literature

That was fortunate for him. The Trancy brat had stated that the Grim Reaper spent a lot of his time in the section; he would wait until Grell Sutcliffe arrived and he would then interrogate him to find out what was going on. The reaper had to know something.

He didn't have to wait long.

Within a few minutes his sharp ears picked up the sounds of footsteps coming towards him and he picked a random book off the closest shelf to conceal his face.

Grell Sutcliffe sighed heavily as he walked in and threw himself dramatically in the other armchair.

"Damn brats. Why did I have to get roped into this?" he whined to himself.

Then he looked to the side and noticed that he was not alone.

"Hi!" he greeted and leaned over to check what the other armchair occupant was reading. "50 Shades of Grey? Let me recommend something better than that wimpy book."

Sebastian put the book down, revealing his face. "Actually I would recommend telling me what is going on around here."

"Sebas-chan," Grell squealed happily before coming to his senses. "What are you talking about? Nothing is going on!"

Obviously lying, Sebastian decided. Judging from his reaction the Grim Reaper clearly did know a few facts if not more about what was going on. However some persuasion was be required to make him talk.

He stood up and stepped closer to the quivering Grim Reaper.

"So why are you working here as a teacher? And why are Ciel Phantomhive and Alois Trancy among your pupils?"

"They are? I've never noticed," Grell lied.

Sebastian took another step closer.

"Why are the school uniforms almost identical to the ones from Weston College over 100 years ago?"

"I don't know anything!" Grell squealed.

Another step closer. Sebastian loomed over Grell. Now their noses were nearly touching.

"You are clearly lying, Grell. I thought you were supposed to be an actress," Sebastian said smoothly, and moved on to his next method of persuasion as interrogation was not going anywhere."Now, how about telling me the truth. I will do you one favour in return."

Grell paused, caught between staying true to his orders and the temptation to take Sebastian up on his offer. In the end his flirtatious side won the internal battle.

"I promised Will I would keep quiet, but one kiss with tongue will loosen my tongue," he winked and puckered up, ready for action.

The demon blanched. Of all things it had to be a French kiss. He thought of the luscious taste of Ciel Phantomhive's soul and steeled himself before kissing Grell's lips as he tried not to concentrate on what he was doing. He was about to make good on the tongue loosening when a voice rang out behind them. A voice belonging to Ciel Phantomhive.

"Mr Sutcliffe, I have a question regarding my project. Mr Sutcliffe?"

Sebastian froze and turned to see Ciel Phantomhive standing behind him with an amused expression on his face as he spotted 50 Shades of Grey on the floor and Sebastian on top of his teacher,

"Mr Sutcliffe, it is a library. If you don't come and help me now I will tell Mr Spears about this."

Then he met Sebastian's eyes. The demon was still frozen in position.

"You're that freak from yesterday- I didn't know you swung that way."

Upon hearing the accusation that he was gay, Sebastian thawed and he was able to think straight again. He decided that he might as well use the situation to see if this Ciel Phantomhive knew anything.

"I go both ways. You really don't remember anything, do you?"

"I remember walking into you last night," the boy replied fluently, without any guilty hesitation. "Mr Sutcliffe, are you coming?"

After a few seconds of deliberation Sebastian relented and dismounted from the Grim Reaper. He obviously was not going to learn anything from the pair at the moment. He would let them go…for now.

Grell gave Sebastian a look of longing as he followed Ciel out the Erotic Literature section.

"Wait young m-Ciel," Sebastian called out after him. Calling the boy "Ciel" felt strange after so many years of "young master". "What school do you go to?"

Ciel turned around momentarily. "Weston College, it's a private school. Now, do I need to get a restraining order against you?"

Sebastian ignored the threat and concentrated on the name. Was it yet another coincidence that the school was the same? He had seen too many coincidences in the last 12 hours to last him a lifetime.

"Who is your headmaster?"

Ciel arched one eyebrow. "William T. Spears. Have you ever heard of Google?"

Later that day Ciel knocked on the door of his headmaster's office. The shining brass plaque nailed to it read "William T. Spears: 2012-." The original Weston College had closed down half a century ago. This one had only been around for 3 years and William T. Spears had taken over as headmaster at the start of the latest school year despite owning the school.

"Come in," a crisp voice answered and Ciel opened the door.

The Grim Reaper was sitting at his neatly arranged desk with a perfect posture. His death scythe lay on the desk next to a tidy stack of paperwork.

"Oh, it's you. What is your report?"

Ciel sat down on the uncomfortable plastic chair opposite his headmaster and crossed one leg over the other.

"Well, as expected he made an attempt on Sutcliffe."

"Oh really? What did Sutcliffe do?"

"He delayed for as long as possible and when I arrived they were liplocked."

Will frowned and straightened his glasses. "I need to explain delaying tactics to him again. What happened after that?"

"I managed to drag Grell away from him, he asked me if I remembered anything as we predicted, what school I went to and who the headmaster is- I gave him your name," Ciel ticked the points off on his fingers. "He will probably make a visit today."

"I will tell Ronald Knox to keep an eye out so we can at least have some warning," Will said and wrote a note in his notebook. "Where is Sutcliffe now?"

As if on cue, a red haired Grim Reaper burst in, squealing as he did so.

"I kissed Sebas-chan! Finally!"

Will's death scythe shot out and closed the door behind Grell. He then retracted it and cleaned it with a handkerchief.

"Was that for pleasure or for work?" Ciel challenged Grell.

"Shut up brat, we've finally got something after all this waiting. I hate being a teacher. I don't know how humans can waste their lives teaching."

"You have time, you can't die," Ciel pointed out.

"This has been very expensive to set up," Will said, interrupting the familiar disagreement. "Remember Phantomhive, if you don't get results within another 12 months I will kill you myself."

"I will give you Sebastian Michaelis," Ciel promised. "Within the time limit, you have my word."

"I still think you have an ulterior motive for agreeing to this," Grell broke in.

"So do you. You're just in this so you can finally get your long awaited kiss, with tongue," Ciel answered back and stood up. "I should go now. I'm missing Physical Education."

He left the room without another word. Grell sat down in his vacated seat and sighed.

"That's enough laziness from you," Will reprimanded. "We have a visit from a demon this afternoon. It's important that we play this right so you must promise to behave this time. We cannot have you telling him everything that is really happening. We have been waiting for this opportunity for over 30 years."

"I wonder if the brat knows we've set almost everything up, including his birth."

* * *

"Anyone would think that you were expecting me," Sebastian commented sarcastically as he walked into the head master of Weston College's office, behind Grell who had met him at the entrance.

"Sit down," Will ordered crisply and pointed to the chair opposite his desk.

"I would rather stand," Sebastian replied. His old habits as a butler still influenced him and he wouldn't sit and let his guard down in front of a pair of Grim Reapers anyway.

"Suit yourself."

There was a moment of silence as both sides waited for the other to speak. Sebastian broke it by asking a question.

"I heard that this school is fairly new compared to the original Weston College and only opened 3 years ago- I did some internet research. The uniforms are reminiscent of the old Weston College in the 19th Century; I was a teacher there in case you didn't know and my former master, Earl Ciel Phantomhive was a pupil there."

"That is correct," Will replied. "Due-"

"I designed the uniforms," Grell interrupted and did a twirl despite that fact he wasn't wearing one. "Do you like them Sebas-chan?"

"Sutcliffe. I was in the middle of talking," Will said and continued where he had left off. "Due to the increased quality of life and better healthcare in this era, there are not so many souls to harvest and when there is one, demons have a tendency to get them before us and we are not very busy nowadays. So, I decided to use my free time to set up a school."

Sebastian raised a sceptical eyebrow. "You have a lot of free time."

"I'm on an extended holiday due to my hard work and overtime over the past couple of centuries."

"Why Weston College of all schools to rebuild? Why is Ciel Phantomhive living again?"

"He just happens to have been reincarnated in this time period. I assume that he is dead as he has been reincarnated. Did you kill him?"

Guiltily, Sebastian bowed his head. "Yes, accidentally."

"That is your fault for acting recklessly. Now, there is nothing strange about reincarnated souls and we just happen to be here, in London on an extended holiday and Ciel Phantomhive happens to live here too."

"So someone like Grell managed to warrant an extended holiday?"

"I cleaned up my act," Grell protested.

"If you say so," Sebastian said doubtfully. "If there is nothing strange about this situation then I should be leaving."

He bowed and walked out of the office, not believing a single word that he had just heard.

At the same time as the demon and the Grim Reapers' conversation, Ciel Phantomhive and Alois Trancy were sitting in Ciel's bedroom on his bed with a tea tray between them.

Ciel sighed and picked up the flower patterned teapot to pour some tea into a matching fine bone china teacup. He then poured in a measure of milk and handed in to Alois before pouring one for himself.

"I really hate those Grim Reapers sometimes," he complained and sipped his tea. "They act as if they are superior and know everything. Then again, that suits me."

"If it wasn't for them, neither of us would have been born," Alois pointed out and took a gingerbread biscuit from the plate on the tray and dipped it in his tea.

"That is true. In any case, this situation has proved useful for my ancestor Earl Ciel Phantomhive."

"Have they noticed that you have the ring?"

Ciel undid the top two buttons of his school shirt and pulled out a silver ring with a blue shard of crystal which was kept on a silver necklace chain.

"No. They can't smell souls like demons can," he explained. "Or at least I hope they can't."

"I wonder if Sebastian Michaelis can smell it," Alois speculated out loud and took another gingerbread biscuit. "These biscuits are nice by the way; I've always liked your cooking."

"I think the fact that I have the ring is the only reason that he is following me around. According to my ancestor's journals, his soul was only coveted because he had experienced traumatic events which gave it a succulent taste. I haven't experienced anything like that so my actual soul should be quite normal."

"I wish my ancestor had left behind journals like that. Although according to the journals the other Alois Trancy wasn't very nice to your ancestor," Alois said sadly. "I'm sorry."

Ciel patted Alois' hand. "It's all right, Alois. It was your ancestor, not you. We are different people in personality."

Alois brightened and decided to change the subject. He didn't like to be reminded that the other Alois Trancy had ruined the other Ciel's life.

"Should we start our homework? I have a lot at the moment. Fortunately Mr Sutcliffe doesn't give us any," he said and dug in his school bag for his homework.

"He doesn't teach us, full stop. He's a Grim Reaper. Mr Knox doesn't exactly do a good job as a security guard either. They are just here to get Sebastian."

"Do you know why they want him yet and why they want him to make a contract with you?"

Ciel smirked and finished off his tea. "I have a very good idea from Earl Ciel Phantomhive's journals coupled with things that Spears has let slip. I think my idea is spot on."

Alois stared at him. "You're very confident. Pride comes before a fall you know."

That comment elicited a skeptical look from Ciel. "That won't happen. I have a few tricks up my sleeve that no one else knows about."

After his very unsuccessful meeting with William T. Spears, Sebastian decided to take a stroll around London to have a think about current matters in the fresh air. Although his primary objective was to see if Undertaker was still operating his business in the same location

He walked down some familiar dark alleyways, passing drug dealers and other petty criminals until he came to Undertaker's shop. The sign had been updated, but he was sure that there were more cracks in the walls and extra cobwebs.

The door pushed open with an eerie creak and Sebastian stepped into the dark interior, ready for the grey haired Grim Reaper to jump out of a coffin and scare him.

"Undertaker?" he called out. "Are you here?"

Something softly tapped him on the shoulder and he spun around to watch Undertaker jump out from behind the door.

"Heellooo Mr Butler, or are you just plain Sebastian now? Or are you Mr Demon?" Undertaker cackled.

"Sebastian is fine."

"Sebastian it is. So, why are you here? I haven't seen you in over a century," he said and closed the door and led the way to a selection of coffins which were lying on the floor. Sebastian now saw that the Grim Reaper was still dressed in his customary black robe with the same floppy hat.

"I'm here for some information on why Ciel Phantomhive is here."

Undertaker burst into laughter. "You're not sure if it's the demon or a reincarnation? Or something else completely? That's not like you."

"It seems that everyone else but me seems to know," Sebastian gritted his teeth, annoyedly. "He is surrounded by Grim Reapers and his best friend is Alois Trancy."

"Grim Reapers… Since seeing you in a tizzy is highly amusing, I will waive the usual fee and give you a few hints."

"Couldn't you just tell me everything?" Not knowing anything about what was going on was beginning to get on Sebastian's nerves.

"Nope, that would spoil the fun!"

Sebastian's mouth twitched. "If you must."

"That's the spirit! Now, what's your first question?"

* * *

Undertaker placed himself on top of one of his coffins which was lying on the floor of the shop and made himself comfortable. Sebastian however, remained standing.

"Tell me, Sebastian, what do you know about reincarnation?" Undertaker enquired as he fished around the same jar as he had always used, for a bone shaped biscuit.

"According to the Collins English Dictionary, it is the belief that on the death of the body the soul is born again. I take it that Grim Reapers have some control over it," Sebastian answered.

"We do, but it isn't perfect. The person isn't always quite the same, some details may be different, the ones caused by environmental factors, genetics however remain the same," he said significantly before taking a bite of his biscuit.

Sebastian felt as if he was being given subtle hints by the Grim Reaper, then again he could just be talking nonsense, Undertaker had always been one to talk around the point.

"Is it legal for a soul to be reborn into this world?"

"Hehe, good question. It is actually illegal as it involves tampering with the person's Cinematic Record which can be dangerous as you know from the incident on the ship. It is only permitted in special circumstances."

It was beginning to sound increasingly likely that the Phantomhive family has not been reincarnated and were simply ancestors with uncanny resemblances to their previous counterparts. Then he remembered the suspicious presence of the Grim Reapers, no, there was definitely something strange about the entire situation.

"Can I ask for any more hints?" he asked after a moment of thought.

"Hmmm.. only if you answer a question first?"

The former butler paused in suspicion before granting his consent. "You may."

Undertaker regarded Sebastian carefully, his eyes partially showing under his heavy fringe. "Why are you "Sebastian"? You are free to take any form that you like." He said as he looked at the man standing in front of him looking exactly as the same as he had over 100 years ago, the long black hair with the fringe parted in the middle. The only thing had changed was the clothes.

Sebastian was puzzled for a moment before he realised the significance of the question. He had taken the form and the name at his former master's request for him to become his butler. After the demon Ciel's death he had been free to take a new form and a name, but he hadn't.

Why hadn't he?

An attachment to the boy perhaps? An attachment to the soul that he had never been able to taste? The latter option was the more likely one, he decided. His feelings towards the human Earl Ciel Phantomhive were fond, a little like his feelings for cats.

He had enjoyed watching the boy fail at simple physical tasks like tying his own shoelaces and eye patch, but he had also enjoyed watching the devious smirk for on his face whenever the boy had worked something out or had outwitted his current nemesis.

Then it came to him suddenly, as if he had been targeted by an electric shock.

He had liked the human Ciel Phantomhive. He had kept the form because he had still wanted to have an attachment to the human boy that he had been fond of. He was not really fond of any of his other contractees.

That was why he was stalking the descendent of his former master now, to try to reclaim the human master that he had liked.

As he was finally connecting the dots together Undertaker cackled merrily.

"For that, Sebastian, I will give an extra hint in addition to the one I was going to give you."

Sebastian immediately switched his attention back to the grey haired Grim Reaper. "Yes?"

Undertaker held up one bony finger. "First, I would suggest checking on current issues in your demon realm- I think you have some catching up to do." He held up another finger. "Secondly, are you sure that you know everything about your own kind. I think that you are missing the solution to this entire mystery due to your ignorance of this little fact."

The enlightened former butler nodded. "Thank you for your help."

He turned to leave, then he paused. "Why are you still "Undertaker"?"

The undertaker in question let out a cackle. "That, is not for you to know."

"I suspected as much."

Sebastian let himself out of the shop. In the fresh air outside he pondered the hints that he had been given. The only clear one was that he needed to visit the demon realm. He hadn't returned since the demon Ciel's death.

2 days later, the current Ciel Phantomhive awoke to the smell of a cooked breakfast wafting up the stairs. He sniffed confusedly, before remembering that it was the weekend and he didn't have to go to school. Ciel stretched and yawned, put his feet into his slippers and slipped on his dressing gown. On schooldays he often ate a rushed breakfast-sometimes involving cake, but when it was the weekend he was able to enjoy a full English Breakfast.

He paused at the bottom of the stairs as a thought struck him suddenly. He normally cooked his own breakfast as his parents were awful cooks and always burnt toast. He could smell normal, unburnt toast...

He had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. Ciel flattened his hair to cover his right eye and walked into the kitchen, ready for the worst.

The worst was watching a black clad man with raven black hair and red glittering eyes, turn away from the stove where fried eggs were fizzing and say,

"Good morning, Young Master."

"...What is going on?" Ciel demanded. He had expected the demon to stalk him, lurk behind bushes and check his school record, but he had never expected his own home to be invaded.

His parents who were sitting at the kitchen table with plates of perfectly browned toast, sausages, rashers of bacon, fried eggs and tomato, looked up in surprise.

"Ah Ciel, I forgot to tell you about this last night," his father said after swallowing a mouthful of toast. "This is Sebastian Michaelis. He is our new butler."

His father's words were the worst that Ciel could have heard. It was going to be harder to act as the original Ciel Phantomhive and keep everything a secret. If he wasn't careful that fact that his eyes were normal and he didn't need to wear an eye patch would be unearthed quickly. He had worn an eye patch for his first meeting with Sebastian to make the recognition clearer and to plant the idea that he was the original Earl Ciel Phantomhive.

He sat down at the table, feeling very dejected. The demon butler placed a full plate in front of him and handed him a knife and fork.

"What would you like to drink?" Sebastian asked as he loomed over Ciel.

"Water, please," he answered. Tea didn't really match an English breakfast.

"Dad, why do we suddenly have a butler. We don't need one."

His father regarded him sternly. "Remember that I am an Earl and we are an influential family. The best owner of Funtom had a butler called Sebastian who looked a little like Sebastian here, you've seen the painting in the study."

"Besides, we do need an extra hand with everything," his mother explained. "I can't really cook very well and I have never been able to keep up with all of the cleaning- your room is a pig sty, Ciel. I've told Sebastian to make it his first priority."

Ciel's heart began to race. His ancestor's journals were hidden in his room. They were hidden well, but it would not be enough to fool a sharp eyed demon like Sebastian. He had to move them quickly.

He took a sip of water to calm himself and poked the yolk of the fried egg with his fork. Alois always liked doing that with his yolk. Alois... that gave him an idea.

"Alois invited me to come to his house this weekend so we can finish our Geography project. He said I could stay the night. May I?" Ciel asked his parents, aware that Sebastian was listening as he washed the dishes. "It would give the butler a chance to clean my room unhindered."

"That's a good idea," his mother answered immediately, pleased that he was agreeing to the idea of having a butler.

"Thanks, I'll start packing now."

Once he was in his room Ciel pulled out his smallest suitcase from under his bed and threw in a change of clothes, some random pieces of homework and his toothbrush. Then he made sure his door was locked before he reopened his wardrobe and slipped a thin nail file borrowed from Alois into a small gap between the slats of wood that separated the upper part of his wardrobe from the bottom and pulled one of the slats up to reveal a stack of leather bound journals. Ciel picked them up, replaced the slats and concealed them in his suitcase.

On his way out he said good bye to his parents and didn't see any sign of the demon butler until he got to the front door. Sebastian popped up in front of him and held out an umbrella.

"It's going to rain today. I think you might need it," Sebastian suggested. "Would you like a little help with your suitcase, young master. It looks a little heavy..." His crimson eyes glinted.

Ciel walked straight past him and ignored the offer of an umbrella. "I'm fine thank you, Sebastian. Alois only lives a few streets away."

He hightailed it out of his house and only relaxed until he got to the end of his road. Living with a demon was definitely going to be his idea of hell, although his ancestor has described it a little differently.

At this rate the whole plan would be ruined and the Grim Reapers would take back the family that they had given him and he would fail what his ancestor had requested of him.

* * *

1889

Earl Ciel Phantomhive sat down at the desk in the study of his London townhouse and began to write on the blank white paper of his empty journal. He had come to realise that he needed to write everything down in order inform his future ancestors about the other side of his life. The darker side that involved killing people for the sake of Queen Victoria.

_I, Ciel Phantomhive, am now a demon. I am still contracted to the demon Sebastian Michaelis who is the current source of annoyance for me._

_Now that he has lost his meal he walks around with a blank face and speaks in a deadpan voice. I now recall my earlier days with him fondly. I am willing to do anything to return him to his original personality. I miss that personality._

Ciel stopped writing for a second and hastily scratched out the last sentence. He wasn't planning on showing too much weakness in his diary. He re-inked his pen and continued writing.

_On the subject of memories I now have all of mine and I have realised all the trouble Sebastian went to in order to frame Alois Trancy for the death of the my parents. This has proved to me that he was willing to do anything in order to consume my soul. This may be the reason that explains why he is so emotionless now. He put in all that effort and yet he achieved nothing. Now he is still contracted to me until I die or he consumes my soul which is currently not possible._

Ciel paused to take a bite of the Bakewell tart that Tanaka had baked for him- it wasn't anything like Sebastian's, but Sebastian only faked making food for him now. He had accepted the snack from Tanaka to dispel the old butler's suspicions, although Ciel knew that he was aware of the change in him.

_In this journal I am going to document the important events in my life._

_I was born in 1876..._

_My aunt became a vicious mass murderer called "Jack the Ripper"..._

_I was turned into a demon..._

The documenting continued late on into the night. Tanaka had supplied him with candles and suggested that he go to bed, but Ciel refused. He had to finish before Sebastian arrived back at the townhouse. He had sent Sebastian away for a few days on the pretext that the entire manor needed to be refurbished.

At 3 o'clock in the morning he finally finished describing the events in his life which filled two whole journals. He quickly skimmed what he had written and came to a decision about how he should end his description of his life.

_The ancestor that finds these journals should be a worthy ancestor if they have managed to solve all the puzzles I left behind to hide my secrets. I would also like the ancestor that finds these to be just like me, young and curious._

_If you are the person that solved the puzzles that I left behind and meet the aforementioned requirements, then please take the ring that should be with these journals. The ring has fragments of my soul contained within. If you wear it, sooner or later Sebastian will be drawn to you, attracted by the scent of my soul._

_There is also something important that you must know before following the aforementioned instruction._

_I am a made demon, therefore I can die._

_I cut myself on a paper knife yesterday and I still have the scar. It did heal quickly, but it left a mark. Judging from this I believe that I can die._

_I do not want extra life, I achieved my life's aim, I achieved revenge. There is nothing left for me here. I want to die._

_If I die, the contract ends and Sebastian is free._

_I will try my best to aggravate him into trying to kill me- it is only fitting that he does it._

Ciel added on final line and drew out his silver wrought ring from his pocket. Despite the fact that he never wore any of his rings anymore he had paid a jeweller to make a replica so Sebastian would not notice the disappearance.

He stacked the two journals and added Tanaka's to the pile before placing the ring on top. He had prepared a special hiding place for them in his townhouse and had hired a builder to make some additions to the house during the time that Sebastian was away.

Now all that was left to do was annoy the hell out of his one hell of a butler. It might take a while, but he had a lot of spare time.

**Present Day**

The boy was definitely up to something, Sebastian thought to himself as he neatly remade Ciel's bed- this Ciel also seemed to be incapable of carrying out simple physical tasks.

Sebastian had of course found the hiding place in Ciel's wardrobe when he had been dusting which had been empty much to his disappointment. The contents must have been carried away in the boy's suitcase, a correct assumption judging by how the boy had hurried away from him when he had offered him help.

He plumped the pillows and made sure that they had nothing hidden inside. So far he had found nothing suspicious in the house. Ciel's bedroom, the library, the sitting room, the music room and Earl Phantomhive's bedroom had unearthed the positive side his search had reminded him of how satisfying it was to wipe a thick layer of dust off everything and to polish silver until it shone.

Finally he yielded something when Vincent Phantomhive invited him into his study to see the painting of Earl Ciel Phantomhive and his supposed "ancestor".

It was an oil painting depicting his former young master in a gold painted chair with his best suit on and one leg crossed over the other, looking every part an aristocrat. Standing behind the boy was himself dressed in his butler outfit with the silver head butler badge glinting. He remembered the day of the sitting exactly. His young master had been unable to remain still without fidgeting or moving and he had resorted to threatening to withhold Ciel's after dinner desserts and sugary snacks if he didn't stay still.

"The boy is Earl Ciel Phantomhive who was the best leader of Funtom, possibly due to his age- he was only 13, but the sad thing was that one day he packed up the manor he that he lived in and left it to the servants and disappeared with his butler Sebastian, never to be seen again," Vincent explained to Sebastian who naturally knew the truth better than he did.

"Do you still own the manor?" he asked interestedly.

"Unfortunately, I had to sell it 10 years ago. Our sales were down, the manor was in a bad condition and I was offered a very good price for the land by a developer. It's a housing estate now."

Sebastian recalled the title of the book he had read in the library, "The Rise and Fall of Nobility". It seemed as if the Aristocracy had really fallen in this century.

"There is something mysterious about the portrait," Vincent said, returning to the previous subject of the conversation.

Sebastian's ears pricked up. Maybe there was something hidden in the house after all.

"What is it?"

"When I had it reframed last year a piece of paper was found wedged between the canvas and the frame. It was a note from Earl Ciel Phantomhive."

"What did it say?" Sebastian's heart picked up pace. The young master had been doing something behind his back after all when he had been sent back to the manor to redecorate unnecessarily.

"It has a riddle on it. I couldn't solve it so I gave it to Ciel. I think he said that he solved it and it didn't lead to anything."

The plot was certainly thickening, Sebastian thought to himself deviously. Now he had another piece of the puzzle to work with.

"Can you remember what the riddle said?"

Ciel's father shook his head. "We all looked at it and couldn't work it out so I gave it to Ciel to keep. I did make a photocopy of it, but I misplaced it." He looked around gloomily at the mess of papers on his desk. "I would ask you to tidy up in here, but I have lots of work at the moment. "

"I look forward to tidying when you are finished," Sebastian replied, knowing full well that he would snoop around before then. "I must get on with preparing lunch."

He exited the room and closed the door behind him. He would make a visit when Vincent Phantomhive was out the house.

As he took off his jacket and rolled up his shirtsleeves to start preparing the cheese soufflé his sharp ears picked up the hollow thunk sound of someone landing on the roof.

Sebastian hurriedly pulled his jacket back on. The soufflé was going to have to wait.

He shimmied up the drainpipe at top speed and pulled himself up to stand on the roof. He looked around, but he couldn't see anyone and he had a slight blind spot where the bright sun was shining.

"I'm over here!" A voice shouted helpfully and the owner of the voice stepped out from behind the chimney to reveal himself to be the blonde and black haired Grim Reaper, Ronald Knox. "Hello, Sebas-chan."

"What are you doing here?" Sebastian enquired politely. He was now a Phantomhive butler again so he had to treat guests with courtesy even if they had just landed on the roof.

"Surveying the situation," the reaper replied casually as if he wasn't face to face with a demon. "I thought I sensed a demon in the vicinity. Now that I know it's you, I'm leaving."

"Not so fast," Sebastian said and gripped the reaper's arm tightly. "I can't let you go at the moment. I need some questions to be answered."

"I need to go," Ronald grunted in reply and managed to detach his arm from Sebastian's extremely tight grip and jumped off the roof onto the next door neighbour's roof and then disappeared from Sebastian's view.

The butler drew out his pocket watch and saw the it was almost nearly time for lunch. He would give up the chase for now and attend to his soufflés. He couldn't serve his new master and mistress a mediocre meal. That was not befitting for a Phantomhive butler.

* * *

Ronald Knox wiped the sweat off his brow with his sleeve as he leaned against Will's desk in the headmaster's office of Weston College.

"Phew, he nearly had me there," he puffed to his co worker who looked very unimpressed. "Although I would not have spilled the beans like Sutcliffe nearly did."

"Hey!" complained the red haired reaper who was sulking in the corner.

"So he is working as Phantomhive butler again," Will said thoughtfully.

"Yep, he had the suit on and everything. The brat wasn't there- I overheard something about him being at Trancy's house."

"Hmm, the fact that the demon has become a butler again shows that he certainly has some interest in obtaining this Ciel Phantomhive's soul. He may also be thinking of making a contract."

"Most of our plan depends on him making the contract before he realises that the brat is not a reincarnation of his beloved former master," Ronald replied. "Phantomhive is obviously trying to stay away from him for now as none of us ever considered that he would become a Phantomhive butler again, but the brat can't keep the act up forever."

In the corner Grell pouted. Will and Ronald were always acting like the Phantomhive brat and Sebas-chan were some kind of a couple which rankled his nerves.

"I think it's unfair that we are manipulating Sebas-chan for our own use. I don't want to go to war with the demons," he interjected with a whine.

Will and Ronald exchanged glances. They had been over the subject many times with Grell in the past few years. They had explained it so many times and now it had become very annoying to explain the same thing every month.

"For the final time Sutcliffe, we are doing this because there are not so many souls left because all the demons are stealing them. When was the last you harvested a soul?" Will asked, exasperated at his colleague.

"I know that..." Grell complained "But why do we have to use Sebas-chan?"

Ronald rolled his eyes. "This is the last time I'm explaining this to you. He is the only demon we know that has a weakness for a vertically challenged brat with an eye patch. How may demons have you seen that are like that? Our plan is clearly working if he has become the ancestor's butler."

"You are in on this too, Sutcliffe. You cannot back out now," Will continued and pushed his glasses neatly back up his nose with his forefinger. "We illegally reincarnated souls after all. If we do not get results we do not have a hold over the demons and we will be suspended forever from our jobs and we will probably end up going to way with the demons anyway with no chance of winning."

The red haired reaper frowned at the mention of a war. Relations between Demons and Grim Reapers had always been tense, but recently due to a shortage of decent souls, fights had broken out with gruesome consequences for the Grim Reaper-Demon relationship. One reaper had been found staked to a wall with his own death scythe.

Grell hadn't actually judged a soul for about a fortnight, if the shortage continued he would be out of a job and it was a Grim Reaper's job to judge souls.

Will was right. It was likely that a war was going to occur and if it did the reapers were going to need all the help they could get, even if it meant ensnaring poor Sebas-chan.

"Fine. I won't complain again. For at least a week," Grell conceded eventually.

"Thank you Sutcliffe. For the moment all we can do is wait for the demon to make the contract."

_Once upon a dreary eve at midnight when all hopes and dreams had been lost..._

_I who had been possessed by an apparition spied a stately raven happen by overheard..._

_And with dreaming eyes quoth the raven, "That which is lost shall never return."_

_"Nevermore."_

"-Ciel? Wake up," a voice called out and punctuated the darkness of Ciel's dream.

With a start, Ciel jolted awake to find Alois leaning over him with a puzzled look on his face. The sight of Alois paired with the word "Nevermore" felt out of place to Ciel.

If it had been Sebastian leaning over him... That felt right. Ciel frowned and wondered why.

"Ciel!" Alois shouted.

Ciel blinked and switched his attention properly to Alois.

"What is it?"

"You appeared to be having a nightmare so I woke you up. Anyway it is past 10 in the morning so I think we should go get some breakfast," the blonde said and helpfully pulled the covers off his friend, enjoying the shiver he made when the cold air hit him."Nice pyjamas by the way."

Ciel looked down at his pyjamas with a dog paw print pattern on the trousers and the top with "cats suck" printed on it. "I am allergic to cats you know. Personally I think mine are better than yours."

"There is nothing wrong with my booty shorts," Alois replied, a little miffed. "Do you want breakfast or not?"

After a bowl of Coco Pops and a tea cup of Darjeeling and a change of clothes, the pair adjourned to the sitting room in Alois' house to attempt to do the homework that they had both neglected. However Ciel could not get the dream from that morning out of his head.

He could not work out why it made him think of Sebastian.

"Alois, do you know a story with ravens in and the word "nevermore" in it?" he asked as he doodled on his chemistry homework instead of balancing equations.

Alois screwed up his face in thought. "It does sound familiar. I think it is something written by Edgar Allen Poe. It might be a poem."

"The American writer?"

Alois gave him a look. "Ciel, I am not an encyclopedia. Google it if you're that interested."

"It doesn't matter that much. I just had a dream..."

His friend nodded knowingly. "I often have dreams about books I have just read. I read this yaoi manga before bed once and I had a very... interesting dream."

"Ew, Alois, you're disgusting," Ciel complained and pulled a disgusted face.

"Of course I'm not. Can you help me with this question?" Alois asked, desperate to change the subject.

Taking the bait, Ciel slid Alois' chemistry book towards himself to take a look. He was in the top set for all subjects except Physical Education whereas Alois the middle set for most subjects, but was the best in his drama class.

Ciel wrote a few numbers onto Alois' homework using his friend's pen.

"Remember that Group 7 elements are diatomic," he explained. "Now that I have done you a favour, you can do a couple for me."

Alois groaned and flicked his fringe dramatically. "Not another one. First I'm stalking Sebastian, then yesterday you randomly turn up and demand to stay the night, now you're asking me for another one. You're lucky that my foster parents are still away otherwise I wouldn't be able to do most of them for you."

Ciel sighed. He had been asking Alois to do a lot for him lately, but events had sped which was something that he had not predicted and he needed all the help he could get from Alois.

"I'll you buy you some new shorts in a rainbow of colours and do all your homework for you."

"It's a deal. What do you want?"

Ciel set down the heavy tool box from Alois' garage on the bathroom floor with a thunk. He opened it and drew out a screwdriver. He pulled up the ceramic lid of the toilet in Alois' ensuite bathroom to reveal the cistern inside which had a lid that was screwed down. Holding his breath, he unscrewed the lid and opened up the cistern.

Then he picked a up a few plastic food bags that Alois had given him and double wrapped all of his ancestor's journals before dropping them in the cistern.

Ciel put everything back in place and tested the flush to see if it still worked. Luckily for him it still did although the flow of water was a little slow.

"And you said that I was disgusting ," Alois tutted as Ciel returned to his bedroom to pack his suitcase. "I'm not the one that had my hands in a toilet."

"Under no circumstances can I let Sebastian get his hands on them," Ciel said as he piled his clothes and homework into his suitcase. "Are you ready?"

The blonde tapped his suitcase which was on the bed next to him. "I'm ready to come and stay at your house and annoy Sebastian. It's going to be so fun!"

* * *

"Oh."

For once Sebastian was lost for words.

He had just answered the doorbell to find his young master and the Alois Trancy brat on the doorstep, both with suitcases. Trancy was wearing a pair of very short shorts like his namesake in the 19th Century. Judging by the suitcase he seemed to be intending to stay.

"Good morning," Sebastian," Ciel greeted him politely. "Are you going to let us in or not?"

Immediately Sebastian recovered and remembered his role as a Phantomhive butler.

"Of course," he said and moved aside to let them step inside. "I will take your suitcases. Will Master Trancy be staying for the night?"

"He will be staying for the week," Ciel informed him with a smirk as he walked down the hallways with his best friend.

"Where will he be sleeping?"

"In my bed of course," Ciel replied as it that was obvious.

Sebastian could hear their laughter as they walked up the staircase. He sighed, it was going to be a long week with Alois Trancy in the house. He knew why Ciel had invited Alois Trancy to stay, it was so there was little chance of him ending alone with Sebastian which was something that Sebastian had been hoping to achieve so he could interrogate him. However he could still ask him about the riddle in public.

Sebastian effortlessly carried their suitcases up the stairs, noting that Ciel's seemed lighter that it had looked the day before. When he got to Ciel's bedroom the pair were sitting on the bed that he had perfectly made the day before which was now rumpled and they were watching a video on Ciel's phone. Sebastian deposited the suitcases neatly in the corner and turned to leave.

"Young master Ciel," he said suddenly.

Ciel paused the video and looked up. "What is it?"

"Do you have your copy of the riddle that was found in your ancestor's portrait?"

The boy's eyes narrowed momentarily before he got up from the bed. "It didn't lead to anything so I tore it up, but I did memorise it. Do you want to hear it?"

"If you would."

_"First think of the person who lives in disguise,_

_who deals in secrets and tells naught but lies_

_Next tell me what's always the last thing to mend,_

_the middle of middle and end of the end?_

_And finally give me the sound often heard_

_during the search of a hard-to-find word._

_Now string them together and answer me this,_

_What creature would you be unwilling to kiss?"_

Sebastian instantly memorised it as he wondered if the boy was telling the truth. His recital had been too quick for something made up on the spot. His fast brain instantly solved the puzzle. A person that lived in disguise and lied was a " _spy",_ the middle of middle was " _d"_ and the sound often heard was " _er"_

If you strung them together you would get " _spy-d-er"_ which of course a spider.

"The answer is spider. Am I right?"

"Yes. I went to the place where all the spiders gather in this house which is the attic, but all I found was this old chess piece."

Ciel walked over to his bedside table and took a chess piece out of the top drawer and then he handed it to Sebastian. It was the black knight and part of its head had been hacked at with a knife leaving behind discoloured marks.

"Can I keep this?" Sebastian asked him.

Ciel nodded after a second of consideration and Sebastian placed it carefully in his pocket, bowed and left the room.

As soon as he had left the room Alois raised his eyebrows at Ciel.

"Is is all right to give him that?"

Ciel smiled at him. "Yes."

It was actually a red herring, designed to keep Sebastian off the real trail for now, although the chess piece had belonged to the original Ciel Phantomhive. The genuine riddle had been something else completely.

He remembered that day he solved the riddle perfectly. It had changed his life forever.

Flashback

**_Summer 2012_ **

_It was the hottest day of the summer, the temperature had risen to 30°C and the sky was a perfect blue and free from clouds. Due to a water shortage a hosepipe pan had been implemented so Ciel was stuck in the garden with only a book to fan himself with to cool down._

_Eventually his arm became sore so he retreated inside. He knew his father had a fan in the study so he headed to that room in his search for something to cool himself down with._

_Inside the study his parents were poring over a piece of paper. His mother looked up as he entered._

_"You've come inside now. That's good, last year you stayed out for too long and burned to a crisp and got that awful sunburn."_

_"Thanks Mum," Ciel replied sarcastically. He didn't like to be reminded that he had spent most of the previous summer looking like he was related to a lobster. "What are you doing?"_

_"The man the reframed your ancestor's portrait found a piece of paper inside that was written on by Earl Ciel Phantomhive," his mother informed him whilst his father got out his magnifying glass. "Would you like to see?"_

_"No thanks."_

_He had had enough of hearing about how great his ancestor Earl Ciel Phantomhive had been. He had been the head of Funtom when the company had been at its peak- that was great, but why did his parents have to name him after his ancestor?_

_It was creepy along with the fact that he looked exactly like him._

_"It's a riddle from the Earl," his father added to sweeten the deal._

_At those words Ciel leaned over to see the piece of paper. He was sure that he could solve a riddle written by his overrated ancestor. He read it once, then twice without it making any sense:_

At the time that

you

possessed and contained

then removed

what is not possible,

anything and everything

remains, however improbable

must be the opposite of a lie

_"Can I take it to solve it?" he asked his parents._

_"Since we haven't made any progress, I suppose you can. I'll write it out so I can have a copy," Vincent answered, happy that he son was finally taking an interest in his famed ancestor._

_All day Ciel pondered the answer to the riddle. He had held it up to the light to check for concealed writing, rearranged the words and letters, used the first letter of each line and word which led him nowhere. He scratched his head and looked at his surroundings, trying to think of a new approach._

_He was sitting on the sofa in the library, surrounded by vast bookshelves full of books. The first edition of Sherlock Holmes: A Sign of Four caught his eye. The book was locked up in a glass display cabinet and he had never been allowed to touch it, although he did know where the key was. According to his father it had belonged to Earl Ciel Phantomhive._

_Ciel loved Sherlock Holmes, he had his own copies of all the books so he tried to think of what Sherlock Holmes would do if he was presented with a riddle. Short of performing Gas Chromatography he had done everything possible so he abandoned using Sherlock Holmes as inspiration._

_He stared down at the riddle for the hundredth time and ruffled his hair. If he couldn't solve the riddle then he would never be able to surpass his namesake._

_The strange roundabout wording bothered him. He knew that the riddle was over 100 years old, but it was a little too rambling and the penultimate line was more succinct than the rest of the riddle. Was that a hint?_

_He grabbed the oldest dictionary in the library of a shelf in the reference section and began to rewrite the lines._

_The first line_ "At the time that" _became "_ When _." He left the second line as "_ you _" as that could not be abbreviated. The third line "_ possess and contain _" was reworded to "_ have _". "_ Then removed _" became "_ eliminated,""what is not possible _" translated as "_ the impossible", _"anything and everything" translated as "whatever". He left the penultimate line and reworded the last line as_ "the truth".

_Ciel let out a whoop. He had solved the riddle._

_The answer was:_

_"_ When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains , however improbable, must be the truth."

_He immediately recognised it as being a famous quote from Sherlock Holmes. His eyes slid back to the first edition of The Sign of Four. If he memory was correct the quote came from that book._

_Ciel hurried to the cupboard in the kitchen where his parents kept all the keys and grabbed the one for the display cabinet. He returned to the library and with a shaking hand he inserted the key into the lock and took the book out._

_He opened the book and felt the thin hardback cover for any irregularities. In the bottom left corner of the back cover his fingers detected a slight indentation._

_"I really hope I'm right- Dad will kill me if I'm not, " Ciel muttered aloud to himself and prayed that something really was concealed in the cover. If he desecrated his father's precious book for nothing he would end up in a lot of trouble._

_With a deep breath he peeled the paper corner of the cover away from the harder part to reveal a tiny flat brass key with "library" scratched onto it._

_Ciel let out a groan. There was another part of the puzzle. As his father had said, his ancestor took games to a whole new level._

_On the positive side he knew that the key fitted into a keyhole that was somewhere in the library. He slowly rotated around on the spot, looking for anything that had been there since the 19th Century._

_The bookshelves were all new like the windows, as were half the books. The only sold thing that he could think of was the black and white tiled chessboard floor._

_It was now late afternoon and the sun had gone behind the clouds so the light from the sun was dim. Ciel switched on the electric light so he could see the floor better and spot imperfections._

_Half an hour later he had crawled around on the black and white tiles of the library floor and had unearthed nothing. He hoped that he would not have to move the bookshelves to check the floor beneath them- he would have to ask for help and any chance of solving the riddle by himself had gone._

_Finally he pushed the sofa away from the wall and bent down. Right by the skirting board there was a minute hole in the floor._

_Ciel took a deep breath to steady his nerves and slid the key in carefully. It was a perfect fit._

* * *

** Summer 2012 **

_Ciel looked around nervously for a second to ascertain that he was definitely alone. The last thing he needed right now was for someone to walk in and discover what he was doing._

_I'm alone, Ciel told himself. He turned the tiny key anticlockwise and the floor tile next to it began to slide away and revealed a set of puzzle pieces with a note lying on top._

_Ciel picked up the note and his eyes widened as he read it._

"To the one that solved my riddle and found the key, the end is in sight, but only just. Assemble the puzzle pieces before the time runs out and the route to my secrets is lost forever **."**

_Ciel glanced back down at the floor and noticed that the puzzle pieces were slowly sinking down into the floor._

_"Shit!" he cursed and picked them all up to find the corner and edge pieces. Ciel swore again when he realised how small the pieces were and that they were all varying shades of white._

_After two minutes of rapid assembling, Ciel dropped the last piece in to complete the picture which was a white rose. He sighed in relief then he frowned when the floor tile next to it slid across to reveal a chessboard with twenty four pieces left on it; twelve white and twelve black and another note lying on top of it. He picked it up and read it in annoyance. How many puzzles would he have to complete?_

"You are nearly there.

Simply play as black and checkmate the white king in one move. There is no time limit."

_After reading Ciel groaned. He hadn't played chess since he had started secondary school-the chess club there was full of chess obsessed boys that took the game too seriously, so he chess skills were quite rusty._

_Analytically, he stared down at the chessboard and considered all of his possible moves. Using pawns was out of the question, the rooks were in the wrong positions and the queen was trapped. That left the knight which four rows away from the white king._

_So he picked up the black knight and placed him on a square that was three spaces forward and one to the right. As he moved the knight he noted that it looked a little beaten up with slash marks where the paint had been chipped off. There was a clicking sound as he placed the knight on the designated square and the floor slid out from under him._

_For a moment he felt like Alice falling down the rabbit hole to wonderland. Then he landed on something soft with a thump. He looked up and to see how far he had fallen and spotted that it was only a few metres as he could still see the light from the library. He felt under him and realised that he had landed on a cushion._

_He stood up and examined his surroundings. It was a very small room, three metres by three metres. He guessed it was only intended as a hiding place and not an actual secret room. Ciel spotted a stack of something in the corner and walked over to it to get a closer look._

_It was a stack of leather bound journals with a ring lying on top. He held the ring up to the light and it glinted blue._

**Present day**

Sebastian examined the chess piece that he had been given carefully in the kitchen. He scrutinised the scratches and a pang of despair hit him. Had his former master really hated him that much?

His master had always been one to refer to him as being a knight on a chessboard so he knew that it represented him, but he didn't know why he had left behind a riddle to lead to the chess piece. It didn't make sense.

A possible explanation would be that he had not been given the real riddle, but there was no way that he could verify that until he found Vincent Phantomhive's copy. He resolved to pay a visit late at night when everyone was in bed.

Rachel Phantomhive walked into the kitchen as he was planning how to break into the study. He hurriedly pocketed the chess piece as she approached him.

"I thought I heard someone ring the doorbell. Is Ciel back?" she asked.

"Yes, he has returned, with Alois Trancy. Apparently he is staying for the week," Sebastian replied as he wondered what her reaction would be. "Is that all right?"

Rachel waved away his concern. "He stays over all the time when his foster parents are away. He gets lonely and Ciel is his only friend."

"Alois Trancy is adopted?"

If he recalled correctly the Alois Trancy from the 19th Century had really been called Jim Macken.

"Yes, his real name is Alois Macken. He took on Trancy as a surname when he was adopted," Rachel explained. "By the way, he is gay."

How like the other Alois Trancy, Sebastian thought amusedly to himself.

"I noticed. Does he like Ciel?" He didn't really know why that question bothered him so much.

"He doesn't- I think he prefers older men and I don't think that Ciel sees him that way either before you ask," Rachel said with a smile. "Is there anything else that you would like to know?"

Sebastian briefly considered enquiring about the riddle, but realised it would be suspicious if he seemed too interested in a riddle that was supposed to be solved and lead to nothing. Instead he asked something else that had been bothering him.

"Does your husband have a fixation with Earl Ciel Phantomhive ? I noticed that he talked about him in great detail and a lot of the old books in the library belonged to him and are in good condition."

Rachel sat down on the kitchen table and sighed. "He does have a slight fixation, but he can't be blamed. Funtom was at its peak when Earl Ciel Phantomhive was the head and the business has been failing in recent years. Vincent has been hoping that Ciel will become the head and make it successful again. He is the spitting image of the Earl after all, but that is not a coincidence-" she broke off suddenly and covered her mouth.

Sebastian instantly picked up on this. Why wasn't it a coincidence that the current Ciel looked like the old one? Rachel Phantomhive could be the key to solving the whole mystery.

"You can tell me, Lady Phantomhive," he said softly, hoping to coax her into telling him. "I will not betray your secret to anyone else."

"No I can't!" Rachel panicked and hurried out of the room.

Sebastian stared after her in surprise, then he shrugged. If he couldn't find anything incriminating in Vincent Phantomhive's study then he would dig deeper into what secret was troubling Rachel Phantomhive.

At one o'clock in the morning Sebastian silently crept out of his bedroom on the ground floor and walked along the hallway to the study. Naturally, the door was locked, but Sebastian had tracked down the key which had been in the pocket of Vincent Phantomhive's dressing gown. He had already noiselessly entered his bedroom to obtain the key. Luckily the older Phantomhives' bedroom was nowhere near Ciel's so there wasn't a risk of him being seen.

He slipped the key into the lock and entered the darkened room. Demon's eyes could see better in the dark, but not in great detail so he switched on the torch that he had brought with him.

Sebastian memorised the layout of the papers on the desk and began to sort through them. Most of them were invoices or new designs for toys. He struck gold when he reached the bottom of one of the piles and found the riddle that Ciel had recited to him.

He examined the writing closely. Vincent had said that he had let Ciel have the original and had written a copy of himself. The copy he was looking at was not in Vincent Phantomhive's writing. He grabbed a random invoice to confirm his suspicions. The writing was close, but varied on some letters.

The only possible reason for this was that Ciel had forged this copy in his father's handwriting in order to allay Sebastian's suspicions. This meant that the riddle he had been told was a lie.

Sebastian replaced all the papers exactly as they had been before his search and switched his attention to the drawers of the desk.

Again it was nothing but documents relating to Funtom. He eyed the financial details with interest. The company was faring well at the moment considering the financial crisis, but it was nothing like it had been in the 19th Century.

His nimble fingers found a false bottom in one of the drawers. He pulled out the papers that were in there and began to read. They all seemed to be relating to In Vitro Fertilisation and Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis.

Sebastian vaguely knew what the terms meant, but he was out of touch with recent human scientific developments so he switched on the computer to find out. The computer had been the next thing to search in any case.

The next fifteen minutes were spent catching up with science and Sebastian knew that he had found a significant clue.

His research coupled with the letters that he had found meant one thing.

This Ciel Phantomhive was not a reincarnation.

It was his parents.

It was through science that had looked exactly the same as original Ciel Phantomhive.

* * *

 

**Summer 2012: 2nd September: (Yes it is another flashback, but there won't be anymore for a while)**

Ciel woke up at 7 o'clock on the dot, fully prepared for the first day of his final year at school. He was out the house by quarter past 8 and met Alois at the end of his road as they had planned. Alois supplied him, like he always did, with the latest gossip on the way to school.

"Did you know that the new headmaster is actually the owner of the school?" Alois asked.

Ciel shook his head. He hadn't really had a chance to think about school properly yet. His mind had been in a mess since he had discovered his ancestor's journals.

He had always thought of his ancestor as a spoiled brat who was overrated just because he was an Earl at the age of 12; he hadn't earned it- he had just inherited the title from his father who had died in a mysterious fire.

However the journals had changed his perspective entirely. He had sat on the cold floor of the library, illuminated by the orange light of the setting sun, captivated by the real story of Ciel Phantomhive's life. He had even shed a tear when he had read the description of when Ciel had been tortured by a sadistic cult of people that were going to sacrifice him.

Now, he admired his ancestor for rising anew after losing all hope and becoming the Queen's watchdog and the head of Funtom. Although he still wasn't sure whether or not he wanted to carry out what his ancestor had requested him to do.

"Apparently we also have a new history teacher and a security guard," Alois continued and glanced over at his best friend who had been stoically silent for most of the journey. "Ciel, are you all right?"

"I'm fine, thank you."

Alois stopped walking. "No, something about you seems different."

"I'm all right, really. I've just found out something that had changed my opinion on something important."

Ciel has been shocked to find out that Alois had an ancestor who had also made a contract with a demon and had become an Earl. The ancestor had also shattered the contract between the original Ciel and his demon although it had not been entirely his fault. But he didn't want to tell Alois any of this.

Alois detected that Ciel didn't want to talk about it so he didn't push the matter. Instead he turned the conversation back to the original subject.

"I've heard that the new history teacher is gay! And he had glasses!"

Ciel smiled at him. "So, you still have a thing for older men with glasses?"

He felt a pang when he remembered that the original Ciel had described Claude Faustus, the demon that Alois' ancestor had contracted with, as being in his late twenties with glasses.

Alois checked the time on his phone. "I think we had better stop talking otherwise we are going to be late for registration."

The pair reached the gates of Weston College just before the bell. They slipped into their form room as their form tutor was taking the register. When the teacher had finished checking attendance, he walked up to the table that Ciel shared with Alois.

"Ciel, Mr. Spears, the new headmaster, would like a word with you in his office," the teacher said quietly. "I'll give you your timetable later."

Ciel nodded and left the room. As he walked along the white walled corridor he considered the reasons why the headmaster would want to talk to him. He had always been a well behaved student so it clearly wasn't anything to do with a lack of discipline.

His excellent set of exam results from the previous year crossed his mind as he approached the door to the headmaster's office. Making up his mind that his exam results were the reason, he knocked on the door.

"Come in," an authoritative voice commanded.

He opened the door and stepped inside the plushly carpeted office.

Sitting at the desk in front of the window was a black haired spectacled man in a sharp black suit. Flanking him on either side were a long red haired man with red rimmed glasses on a chain and a blonde and black haired man with distinctive white shoes and thick rimmed glasses.

"Ciel Phantomhive," the one sitting at the desk said. "My name is William T. Spears. Please sit down."

Ciel complied and the headmaster continued speaking. "On my left is Grell Sutcliffe, your new history teacher and on my right is Ronald Knox, the new security guard,"

"Nice to meet you," Ciel greeted, puzzled as to why he was being introduced to everyone.

"Now that we have the formalities aside, we can get to the proper subject. What do you know about your ancestor Ciel Phantomhive the first?"

A month ago Ciel would have rolled his eyes and moaned that he was a pain to be related to. Now that he knew differently he was more guarded.

"Well, he was born in 1876 and mysteriously disappeared 13 years later. Apparently I look just like him," Ciel answered carefully as he wondered why he was being asked.

Will nodded. "You do. I arranged that. I personally think that I did a good job."

Ciel wasn't sure if he had heard right. "Excuse me?"

"It is not a mere coincidence that you resemble your ancestor exactly. If you don't believe me, I can prove it. Your mother had trouble conceiving you, am I right?"

"Yes." Ciel wasn't sure where this was leading to. How could his appearance before he was born be controlled?

"That's the trouble with reincarnations, they find it hard to have a child," the red haired man spoke up in a high pitched voice.

"What on earth are you talking about?" Ciel demanded. He had no clue about what was happening.

Then he remembered the journals. His ancestor had mentioned Grim Reapers in several entries, especially the one called Grell Sutcliffe who had murdered his aunt and William T. Spears had also cropped up a few times in his exploits. If he remembered correctly Grell Sutcliffe had flaming red hair and skulls on his glasses. He stole a quick look at the man to confirm his suspicions.

It hit him like a ton of bricks. He was sitting in an office with 3 Grim Reapers that had known his ancestor, in a school owned by one of the aforementioned reapers. His heart lurched and he began to feel nauseous . His mind had been focused on the last few pages on the journals and the Grim Reapers had been the last thing on his mind.

"Ciel Phantomhive, your parents are reincarnations of Vincent and Rachel Phantomhive from the 19th Century. You however, are something else," Will informed him.

"What am I?" Ciel asked warily, afraid to know.

He had never paused to consider why he looked so much like his ancestor- he had just taken it for granted.

"A miracle of modern science. Do you know what In Vitro Fertilisation is?"

"IVF? Yes, I do. I learnt about it last year for an exam."

Ciel understood now. The embryo that had grown into the fetus that had become him had been specifically chosen to have the features of the original Ciel Phantomhive. Nothing about his conception had been natural- it had just been modern science.

"I take it that you played some part in selecting the embryo," Ciel said dryly, once he had recovered his composure.

"Of course. Your parents just wanted a healthy baby. They had trouble conceiving so they went abroad to undergo IVF and I arranged the embryo that had all the right features to be the one used."

"Now that I know all of this, what happens to me now?"

He knew that he wasn't been told the secret of his birth for nothing. The Grim Reapers clearly had an agenda.

Grell Sutcliffe smiled baring his pointy teeth. "We need you to do something for us, brat. I never thought that I would have to see your face again."

"We need you to make a contract with a demon, like the other Ciel Phantomhive did," Will said calmly, as if it were a natural thing to ask for.

Sebastian Michaelis was the first demon that came to mind and Ciel had a feeling that it was him that they were referring to.

"What happens if I don't want to?"

"Your friend Alois Trancy is a reincarnation as well as your parents. We caused them to be reborn, we can easily erase their existence if you don't agree to work for us. We reincarnated Trancy as an extra bargaining tool."

"Also, we are all Grim Reapers, we have death scythes," Grell added threateningly. "I've always wanted to cut your face with a death scythe. Don't tempt me anymore."

The blood flow to Ciel's head felt like it had frozen. If he didn't make a contract with a demon then his parents would die along with his best friend. Why was his life so unfair?

"Fine, I will do as you say," Ciel relented eventually. "Who am I supposed to make a contract with and what kind of contract?"

Will briefly explained about the contract that the other Ciel had made with a demon called Sebastian Michaelis.

"I will explain more about the original Ciel Phantomhive in order to make things clearer for you and I will also explain what kind of contract I want you to make when the demon actually appears in the city. For now, I just need you to agree to making it."

"I agree." There was nothing he could do against it if his best friend's life hung in the balance.

As Will opened his mouth to reply the bell signalling the end of registration pealed.

"I suggest you go to your first lesson. Sutcliffe, don't you have a lesson to teach?" Will said, dismissing Ciel from his office.

At the end of the corridor Ciel accidently bumped into Alois who was the only person there are the only thing down the corridor was the head teacher's office.

"Ciel, what did Mr. Spears-" Alois asked, but was cut off.

"Alois, I need to tell you something important."

Ciel had realised that he couldn't do everything alone. He was going to need some help from his best friend.

* * *

_This Ciel Phantomhive was not a reincarnation._

_It was his parents._

_It was through science that had looked exactly the same as original Ciel Phantomhive_

(Chapter 9)

Sebastian frowned at his own deduction. Was the answer really that simple?

It didn't explain everything properly. He still didn't know why Grim Reapers were running Weston College and were interested in him. It also did not explain why this Ciel had the same succulent scent as the other Ciel. If they were separate people then their souls would smell completely different.

He had been intending to make a contract with the current Ciel Phantomhive in order to finally obtain the aforementioned delicious soul, once he had found out exactly what the boy was, but now he was wary of doing so as there were still unanswered questions.

Sebastian shut down the computer and replaced everything as he had found it before relocking the study door. He crept back into Vincent Phantomhive's bedroom and dropped the key back into his dressing gown pocket.

As he approached the top of the stairs, about to go down and return to his bedroom, a voice whispered "Sebastian..."

He whirled round to face the speaker and felt disappointment when his sharp eyes discerned the figure lurking in the shadows. It was Alois Trancy.

"Hello, master Trancy. What are you doing up so late?" he said quietly, interested to hear what the brat would say.

"I might ask the same of you, it's nearly 2 o'clock in the morning- it's early not late. Don't give me any bullshit about butlers having to get up this early. It is the 21st Century you know," Alois added as an afterthought.

Sebastian narrowed his eyes at the insult and decided not to take the bait.

"I thought I heard a noise so I came up to check," he lied smoothly. "Now that I know it is you I will return to my room."

Alois raised his eyebrows but decided to let it go. "Good night, Sebastian."

He turned away from the butler and returned to Ciel's bedroom. His best friend was fitfully sleeping again. There were beads of sweat dotted on his pale forehead and he rolled over with a groan as Alois slipped in next to him.

Alois opened his mouth to inform him that he had seen Sebastian acting suspiciously, then he paused. Ciel was under a lot of stress at the moment and he clearly wasn't sleeping well and he didn't need something else to stress about right now.

He would tell him in the morning.

"What? You saw Sebastian come out of my parents' room last night?" Ciel hissed after Alois informed him what he had seen the following morning. Then Ciel sighed. "He was clearly after the key to the study. I know what Dad keeps it in his dressing gown pocket. It would be easy for a demon to sneak in there and steal the key."

"Is there anything incriminating in there?" Alois asked as he pulled on his blazer.

"I'll explain at school," Ciel said and picked up his schoolbag.

As the pair passed through the entryway Sebastian appeared in front of them holding two packed lunch boxes.

"I heard that school lunches are not very nutritious, so I took the liberty of preparing packed lunches for both of you." Sebastian held out the lunches with an angelic smile.

"The only good thing about school lunches is the fish and chips on Fridays," Alois replied as he took his packed lunch from Sebastian. "Right, Ciel?"

Ciel nodded and hesitantly took his lunch from the demon's outstretched hand. "Thank you, Sebastian."

Sebastian blinked in surprise at hearing the words "thank you" come from someone that looked exactly like his former master who had never said the words.

"Have a nice day at school."

As soon as Alois and Ciel sat down at their table during registration their form tutor approached them.

"Ciel, Mr. Spears wants to see you in his office. I will tell your English teacher that you will be late to her lesson."

By now everyone in any of Ciel's classes was used to Ciel missing parts of the lessons to see the head teacher so no one blinked an eyelid as he left the room.

Normally he saw Will twice a week. In each of their meetings Will had explained facts about Grim Reapers and Demon, but he had always said that he would explain the contract that he wanted Ciel to make with Sebastian when the time came.

Ciel wondered if that time had come now as Sebastian had found out what he really was. He had broken into his father's study after meeting the Grim Reapers for the first time and had found the incriminating documents so he knew that it was very likely that Sebastian knew the truth.

He entered the office after knocking and sat down his usual chair, opposite his headmaster.

"Has the time come for you to explain yet?"

Will pushed his glasses up his nose with his finger. "Yes. Now that the demon is very close to you we can't afford to mess up."

"So, you are going to tell me exactly what contract you want me to make?"

"Yes, but first I will tell you the terms of the contract that your ancestor made."

Of course Ciel knew exactly what those terms were having read the other Ciel's journals which explained it in detail.

"He requested that the demon follow every order, never lie and remain at his side until the end," Will paused for emphasis. "I want you to make a similar contract with the only difference being that the power to order the demon can be transferred to a person of the human's choosing."

Ciel's eye twitched, now he knew that the Grim Reapers were after. They wanted the power to control Sebastian themselves without a middle man.

"How do you suggest I get him to agree to these terms? He is not stupid, he will know that he is being tricked."

"He agreed to your ancestor's contract easily enough. He craves your soul; I think he will agree to anything to get his hands on it. You've piqued his interest- he is curious so he will make the contract."

As soon as he had finished speaking Will switched his attention to the stack of correspondence on his desk. This was usually the signal for Ciel to leave. This time Ciel ignored it.

"You are saying that everything is up to me now? I have to somehow get him to make the contract with me?"

"I have already deployed all of my playing pieces. 35 years ago I reincarnated your parents, I arranged your birth, Trancy's reincarnation and set up this school. My next part comes after you make the contract. Then you will never see any of us again," Will informed him without looking up from his paperwork.

"I understand," Ciel sighed. "But, why Sebastian of all demons."

"He is willing to actually make proper contracts and starve himself to make just one soul taste better- you do not find many demons like that. In addition he seems to have a weakness for the Phantomhive family," the grim reaper looked up briefly. "I persuaded Undertaker to plant some seeds in the demon's head about his feelings for his former master."

"That creepy long haired man? You have certainly planned this well, Mr. Spears. I suppose I should go start plotting now," Ciel said and left the office.

Will stared after him with surprised look on his face. Something was not right. The boy knew more than he should...

At lunchtime Ciel and Alois sat down in their usual secluded spot at the back of the school hall. The spot was good for private conversation and transactions.

Ciel stared down at his packed lunch doubtfully before opening the box and finding a stack of neatly cut sandwiches, cheese straws and an apple crumble in a ramekin and a spoon. He carefully checked for any signs of listening devices. For the moment school was the only place secure from Sebastian where he could have a conversation.

"What's in yours? I've got a whole load of pink panthers in mine," Alois said and pushed his towards Ciel.

Ciel leaned over. All that was in Alois' was the pink panther biscuits and a pink lady apple. "Hmm, that's not very nutritious. I don't think he likes you that much- he wants you to get fat."

He dug into his apple crumble first with the provided spoon and frowned at the unexpected taste of spinach. He took off the crumble topping with his spoon and spotted the tiny pieces of spinach leaves that were mixed in with the apple.

"I think he is trying to give me extra folic acid," Ciel said dryly and pushed it aside for the moment as something that was less important. More importantly he needed to get Alois up to date.

"Sebastian knows that I am not a reincarnation- Dad keeps some of the documents from the laboratory that did the IVF and PGD in his desk. He was probably searching the study for the riddle. I left behind a forgery, but I'm not sure that it was good enough to fool him."

"Where did that riddle come from anyway?" Alois asked through a mouthful of pink panther and sprayed pink crumbs on the table.

His best friend smirked. "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire- I thought you were a fan."

"I'm not that much of a fanboy. Besides, my favourite is Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone."

"Harry Potter aside, Will had explained what kind of contract he wants me to make and has offered no suggestions to how I should lure him into making it. Do you have any ideas?"

Alois considered it for a few moments as he chewed. "Hmm, you seduce him. With cat ears."

Ciel shot him a not amused look. "Serious ideas if possible."

"You have enough time to get closer to him and lure him into making a contract; wear cat ears- it should make it faster. You could get him to tutor you," he added as a more sensible suggestion.

Ciel daintily nibbled on a cheese straw as he considered Alois' suggestions. "The last idea is good, we are going to fail the history exam in a few months unless Grell actually starts teaching. We can get him to tutor us."

 

* * *

Whilst his young master and the Alois Trancy brat were at school Sebastian dusted surfaces, polished tables and washed the dishes in his role as the Phantomhive family butler. Once he had finished for the morning he returned to his bedroom and considered his options.

After receiving the two hints from Undertaker he had briefly returned to the underworld to do a little research.

Most importantly he had gained the knowledge that made demons could be killed as their healing powers were slower than a normal demon which explained why he had been able to kill the demon Ciel Phantomhive by tearing his head off. He had stabbed the boy right after he had been turned into a demon, but a stab wound was easy to heal compared to decapitation.

In addition he had picked up hints of tension between the demons and Grim Reapers which shed light on the reaper's involvement with Weston College and the Phantomhive family.

But there were other questions that still required answers. If the current Ciel Phantomhive was a completely different person to the original, why did his soul smell exactly the same? That had been bothering him and he had not picked up any clues to answer that question yet.

For now he could observe the boy and wait for him to make the first move. If not...

He still wasn't sure what the Grim Reapers wanted with him so it would be wise to approach with caution.

Sebastian thought back to his final days the human world with the demon Ciel Phantomhive. There had to be a clue in his memories somewhere of what the boy had been doing behind his back.

**1889**

_It was around half past five in the morning. Sebastian had just arrived back at the Phantomhive townhouse in London after spending five days in the countryside redecorating the manor. He had even been order to rebuild part of it and add a conservatory._

_He entered the house via the back door and shook off his sopping wet coat. It had been heavily raining on the outskirts of London and even the perfect butler couldn't avoid rain. Sebastian dried himself off and went in search of his demon master. He found him curled up asleep on the sofa in the study, looking very relaxed and free._

_Reluctantly he picked the demon boy up in his arms and carried him bridal style up the stairs to his bedroom. It would be unfitting for a butler to leave in master sleeping in an uncomfortable position._

_The boy stirred as Sebastian laid him out on the bed._

_"Sebastian? You are back?" he asked sleepily with one eye with glowed a startling red._

_"Yes I am, young master," Sebastian replied mechanically, his normal enthusiasm absent._

_Ciel sat up and allowed his butler to undress him._

_"Sebastian, do you believe in Reincarnation?" he enquired suddenly as Sebastian buttoned up his nightshirt._

_The butler looked directly at his master- something that he hadn't done since the boy had become a demon._

_"The Grim Reapers possibly have some control over it, but I have never seen it happen. Why do you ask?"_

_His master laid back down and pulled the covers over himself with a sigh. "It was just a thought. It would be nice if someone knew the real story of Ciel Phantomhive and not just that I was a rich brat."_

_"If you say so, young master."_

_The boy was in a whimsical mood, Sebastian thought to himself without much interest. He no longer served the boy with any enthusiasm- there was no reward at the end for him anymore._

_"Oh Sebastian, I want to leave this human world as soon as I can..."_

**Present Day**

Sebastian considered the memory carefully. The boy had been very relaxed that day which suggested that he had gotten rid of something, possibly a task that had been bothering him. He had also been interested in Reincarnation, which was now a moot point as he knew that the current Ciel Phantomhive was not a reincarnation.

His young master had wanted people to know the true events of his life, this knowledge had clearly been passed down to the current Ciel Phantomhive through some means- something that had led on from the mysterious secret riddle.

At four o'clock in the afternoon his young master returned from school with his whelp of a best friend. The pair headed straight to Ciel's bedroom, but Alois came back downstairs a few minutes later and entered the kitchen.

"Sebastian, can you give me some help with homework?" the blonde whined annoyingly and sidled closer to him.

Sebastian forced a smile. "I'm afraid I am busy at the moment."

"Ciel wants some help too. He's just getting the textbooks," Alois added and there was a momentary glint in his eye.

"I might be able to spare you some time," Sebastian acquiesced immediately. Finally, he had some time with his young master.

As promised Ciel joined them a few moments later, carrying a stack of precariously balanced textbook and wearing a pair of cat ears on his head. He dumped the books on the kitchen table with a thud and sat down opposite Sebastian with a very red face. It had taken a lot of persuading from Alois to get Ciel to wear the cat ears and he was feeling very embarrassed.

"What would you like help with?" Sebastian asked, eyeing the textbooks and Ciel with interest. Cat ears made his current master look...cute. He felt a desire to reach out and stroke his head. In order to stop himself he steadfastly focused his attention on the textbooks in front of him. Schooling had certainly changed since he had been a teacher at Weston College in the 19th Century.

Ciel and Alois looked at each other. "History," the pair said at the same time.

Sebastian tore his eyes from Ciel's head and focused his attention on what they were saying. "Which period in particular?"

Ciel handed the butler a textbook with GCSE History: The American West written across the cover.

"This should give you an idea. We have to know everything about the American West. Luckily its only a fifty year period that we have to know in detail."

Sebastian flipped through the textbook. The Gold Rush. Cowboys and Cattle Ranching, Homesteaders were what most of the pages were about. There was also helpful highlighting of key words and summary questions on each page.

"I will read through the later and set you some questions. Why are you both so behind in History?"

He could guess the answer though- he had met their teacher.

"All Mr. Sutcliffe does in our lesson is brush his hair and paint his nails," Alois complained. "I regret choosing it as a GCSE now, but the teacher we had last year was fine."

"What other subjects are you doing?" Sebastian enquired, interested to know what was part of the modern school curriculum.

"Maths and English are mandatory as is Science, but the science you do depends on your ability. I'm doing double whereas Ciel does triple which is separate sciences because he is a brainbox."

"What subjects are you doing, young master Ciel?"

Ciel looked up from his chemistry revision guide. "History, French and Graphics. I also do business instead of Student Development."

Sebastian's mind noted that all those subjects were perfect for someone that wanted to run a business as he had tutored the other Ciel personally and he guessed it was under Vincent Phantomhive's influence that Ciel had taken those subjects. He wondered what the boy really wanted to do.

"What do you want to be when you are older?"

Ciel shot Sebastian a sharp look which contrasted with the fluffy cat ears that he was wearing. "It has already been decided. I'm the successor of Funtom."

Ciel was always sensitive on this subject so Alois decided to intervene before Sebastian probed any deeper and Ciel said anything he shouldn't.

"Sebastian, can you help me with this Maths' question?" he whined and spotted the glare that the butler sent him for interrupting his conversation with Ciel.

"Of course, master Trancy," the black haired butler smiled sweetly. "Will you be needing help with anything else?"

"Could you possibly teach me everything you know about Science? The teacher I have is even more useless the Mr. Sutcliffe."

"You have Mr. Gove, don't you?" Ciel said. "I've heard rumours about him. Apparently, despite not being a Chemist he taught the Year 11 students Chemistry last year and botched everything up from marking coursework to teaching the syllabus and some students missed out on getting into the colleges that they wanted as they got such a low grade."

"Why is he still teaching if he is such a bad teacher?" Sebastian asked wonderingly.

Ciel closed his chemistry book and shrugged. "I don't know. He teaching the not so clever students at the moment and I don't think there would have been anyone with the right qualifications to fill the vacancy that would have been left if he had been fired."

Alois huffed next to him and slouched dramatically. "It's all right for you, you don't have him as a teacher."

"I'm not sure about that. My Physics teacher is looking pregnant and will end up going on maternity leave so I will probably get him as a cover. That's why I'm trying to learn everything now."

"That is an annoyance," Sebastian agreed and his eyes glinted crimson momentarily.

Alois stared at the butler as he talked to Ciel, noting how the demon perked up whenever Ciel spoke to him and how his eyes were always drawn to the cat ears on Ciel's head. He decided to test out Sebastian's reactions for fun as well as future reference. He cleared his throat and spoke in his best innocent voice.

"Sebastian, did you know that it is rumoured that your ancestor Sebastian Michaelis was in love with Ciel's ancestor and the reason they mysteriously disappeared was because they were eloping as it was illegal for men to be gay under the rule of Queen Victoria?" *

The reaction was immediate. Sebastian's face flushed red and he looked shocked as if the thought had never occurred to him. Alois looked over at Ciel and noted with surprise that his face was also tomato red.

Alois burst out laughing. "You should have seen the look on your face, Sebastian! I was only joking about the elopement part."

Ciel joined in and the pair of best friends laughed together, enjoying the carefree atmosphere that they had created which was a rarity in Ciel's life as he had only been created as a pawn which would sacrifice his soul. The pair had no idea that everything was going to be irreversibly changed forever starting with an event that was about to occur.

* * *

It had been a long day for Ciel. Mondays were never good for him and this one had been especially desponding. Now that Sebastian knew he wasn't a reincarnation Ciel no longer had a great advantage over him. He still had some tricks up his sleeve, but there were small and trivial compared to the advantage that he had had. He was also no longer confident that he would be able to carry out what the Grim Reapers had ordered him to do as well as what his ancestor had requested him to do. Also having to make sure that his right eye was always hidden by his hair was a pain and disorienting his sight as well as playing havoc with his depth perception.

Due to his pileup of stress Ciel swapped his usual quick shower for a long soak in the bath and felt his worries temporarily ebb away into the steaming hot water. He had fun going back to his childhood and giving himself a Father Christmas beard making snowmen out of bubbles. He had also considered lighting some scented candles, but that was one step too far into femininity for him, although he knew Alois did it.

A sharp knock at the bathroom door punctuated his half an hour of forgetting that he was a descendant of Ciel Phantomhive and that his loved ones' lives hung in the balance if he didn't make a contract with a demon for his soul.

"Young master Ciel? It is nearly 9 o'clock and you have school tomorrow," Sebastian's voice called, muffled by the door.

Ciel opened his eyes and yawned. Time had flown by too quickly for his liking and reminded him that he had a time limit.

"I'm coming," he replied and stepped out the bath and pulled out the plug. He picked up his pyjamas to put on. The thought of Sebastian seeing him in a towel was embarrassing for him.

Sebastian was still waiting outside five minutes later when Ciel finally exited the bathroom in his blue and white striped pyjamas with his wet hair covering his right eye and dripping water onto the collar. He clicked his tongue and tutted.

"If you go to bed with wet hair, you will catch a cold," the butler reprimanded and pulled the boy's towel out of his hands and rubbed his hair dry with the towel like he had done for the boy's ancestor over 100 years ago.

The action felt pleasant to Sebastian and he remembered again how he had enjoyed serving his human former master. Making jokes about how incapable he was at physical tasks, enjoying watching him concoct his nefarious plots and touching him whenever he could... Admiring his glowing pale skin when he washed his hair in the bath...

He stopped rubbing and pulled the towel away from Ciel's head. He patted the boy's head with his gloved hand to check for moisture.

"Your hair is dry now, young master Ciel," he said quietly and handed the wet towel back to the boy.

"Thank you Sebastian," Ciel replied. "Good night."

He turned away from the butler and walked down the hallway to his bedroom. Alois was sitting up in his bed on his laptop.

"You were a long time in the bath," Alois commented as Ciel slipped in on the other side of the double bed. "I was waiting for you, but you took so long I started reading some nice Yaoi manga." He rotated the screen towards Ciel who flinched when he saw the picture on the screen.

"You should stay off the dodgy websites, Alois," he yawned and snuggled into his bedcover. "Good night."

As Alois clicked away on his laptop Ciel pondered the altercation he had just had with Sebastian. His touch had felt familiar for some reason and he had found himself enjoying it. He stared down at the ring that was hanging from his neck on a chain. He always wore the ring as he was afraid of losing it or it getting stolen, but now he wondered if it really was the best thing as it was clearly having some kind of effect on him.

That night Ciel had the most vivid dream he had ever had.

It was his tenth birthday and he was running through his house which didn't look like his normal house- it was too big, looking for his parents. He found them sprawled on the floor in the lounge, lifeless with blood pooling around them and bright flames building over the room.

The next thing he knew he was trapped in a cage being sold to a cult of sadistic and bloodthirsty mask wearers who branded him on his back. He could feel the searing hot pain of the brand.

Then he was lying on a hard block of stone, about to be sacrificed by a person in a raven black cloak and mask.

As the dagger was raised to stab down he shouted out loud, "There is no such thing as God in this world!"

Ciel woke up with a piercing scream. His hair was messed up and beads of sweat were dripping down his face. As he was recovering his breath in short gasps, his parents and Sebastian burst into his bedroom, all in their night clothes and dressing gowns.

"Ciel, what was that scream for?" his father demanded, walking up to him.

"I think Ciel had another nightmare," Alois answered for him as he sat up in bed.

"It must have been scary," his mother said and gave him a hug.

Sebastian did not join in the huddle around Ciel. Instead he watched the boy carefully as both eyes were now showing due to his messed up hair. The boy looked over at him and for a split second their eyes met and the boy's right eye flashed purple before he looked away. The demon frowned in puzzlement and decided that it would be beneficial for him to join the huddle.

He leaned over Ciel whose eyes were the normal shade of blue again and patted his head, before saying,

"I hope your nightmare wasn't too scary. Was it because you were reading Poe before you went to bed, young master?"

As he had been expecting, Ciel's right eye glowed for a millisecond with a pentagram that matched the one that was concealed under a glove on Sebastian's hand. The flash was so quick that only Sebastian's demon eyes picked it up, but the Trancy brat seemed to sense something and pushed Sebastian's hand off Ciel's head.

"He's fine now," Alois said forcefully to the butler. "You can all go back to bed now," he added in a much sweeter tone to Ciel's parents and smiled.

Eventually Ciel's parents and Sebastian left the room. The demon butler had clearly wanted to remain for a while, but Alois managed to force him to leave politely.

"Ciel, what was your dream about?" he asked as soon as they were alone. He remembered the last time Ciel had talked about his dreams- it had been something to do with Edgar Allen Poe which Sebastian had just referenced. Alois frowned.

"I-I don't know.." Ciel ran a shaking hand through his hair. "It was extremely upsetting and I was going to die." He winced. "My head hurts now and I can feel a stinging pain in my right eye."

"Do you want me to get you some Paracetamol?" Alois offered.

Ciel shook his head. "I'll be fine, thank you Alois."

He lay back down and tried to relax and empty his brain of thoughts so he could fall asleep. However images from his dream kept flashing in front of his eyes. Unlike last time, the images were clear cut, almost as if it had been a memory. A memory that had been too horrific to forget...

Sleep didn't come for Ciel until the morning.

The next day was grey. The sky was completely raven black with dark cloud blocking out the sunlight. To make the day even more dreary, it was raining heavily with the raindrops filling overflowing puddles on pavements.

Ciel stared out the window disconsolately with sleep deprived eyes. He had a bad feeling about attending school today.

Alois came up behind him. "We're going to have to leave now otherwise we won't get there in time." He picked up a red and white spotted umbrella from the umbrella stand and passed Ciel's plain black umbrella to him. "I've been looking forward to trying out my new brolly for a while."

Ciel accepted the umbrella and stared out the window again. "Alois, do you know what Pathetic Fallacy is?"

Alois rolled his eyes. "There you again with your fancy words. What is it?"

"It is when descriptions of the weather reflect the current mood of a book, a play or a film. It was often used by Shakespeare to foreshadow future darker events," Ciel said thoughtfully.

"It is key in Act 3, Scene 1 of Romeo and Juliet," Sebastian's voice came from behind him. "It is part of your English Literature curriculum, master Trancy."

"How did you know?"

Sebastian smirked condescendingly. "I believe you handed me all your textbooks and begged me to tutor you."

Alois scowled.

"In any case, you should be getting to school. Something important may happen today and you would not be wanting to be late for it." The demon's eyes glowed a startlingly red.

The pair found that Sebastian was correct when they finally arrived at Weston College after a brisk run through the rain. All the pupils were clamouring around outside in the rain which was not usual behavior.

They walked up the steps to the front entrance to find their Grim Reapers headmaster blocking their way.

"What's going on?" Ciel enquired.

"There has been a death which is currently classed as a suspected murder," Will replied.

Ciel's comment about Pathetic Fallacy had been right on the mark.

* * *

 

The wind speed picked up as Will spoke and the rain began to drive against Ciel's school uniform, making it cling tightly to his skin.

"Who died?" Ciel enquired.

"Mr. Gove, the science teacher. He teaches Trancy and he was due to start covering your Physics class next week," Will informed him and a strange look crossed his face. "His body was found at the bottom of a flight of stairs this morning; it seems that he fell down and broke his neck. The school is closed at the moment, however due to impending exams Year 11 students can attend normal classes except sciences if they wish. The science department and the crime scene have been closed off by the Police."

"Are the Police still here?" Ciel asked after digesting the information. He wondered why Will was telling him all of this. There would be mass panic if the head teacher of a school informed every pupil that asked that there had been the suspected murder of a teacher. There had to be a significance.

"The Scene of Crime Officers just left, but there is an officer stationed at the entryway to the stairwell where the body was found and the other entrance is blocked off. That said, there is an unguarded way in. Trancy, give me your school organiser," Will requested.

Alois blinked in surprise as the reaper had never talked to him directly before. He fished his dog eared organiser out of his messenger bag.

Will raised an eyebrow at the state of the organiser as Alois handed it over. He turned to the back page which had a printed map of the school. He circled one of the stairwells on the first floor corridor with a fountain pen.

"This is where the body was found; it is one of the staircases that connects to the science corridor. The door on the floor above is blocked off and the door at the bottom is guarded by a police officer standing outside. This means that if you managed to get inside the stairwell you would not be discovered as no one is actually in there."

Ciel caught his meaning. Will was suggesting that he secretly entered the crime scene which was actually against the law.

"How do I get in without being seen?"

The corner of Will's mouth twitched as if he wanted to smile but could not. "I'm afraid that it requires good athletic skills so Trancy will have to enter first and then help you."

Ciel scowled, annoyed that everyone seemed to think that he was bad at sport because he was pale and short.

"What do I have to do?" Alois asked and pumped his arm muscles to annoy Ciel.

"Trancy, there is a vent in the stairwell with one of the entrances being in the corridor just outside the stairwell. You need to crawl through it and once you are in, unbolt the door for Phantomhive. Then when you leave, do the reverse," Will paused for a second before adding, "Do not get caught."

Will moved aside to allow Ciel and Alois to enter the school building which seemed like a graveyard to due to the ominous air and the lack of students.

"Doesn't this feel like a video game," the blonde comment happily as they headed towards the science department.

"Real life doesn't have a second chance button," Ciel replied, then he remembered his parents and best friend had been reincarnated which proved that it was slightly possible to have a second chance at life. He smirked wryly.

10 minutes later, after walking through the school corridors they approached the door to the stairwell that housed the crime scene. The science prep room was on the first floor, but the actual science corridor was on the floor below. The double doors to the stairwell were blocked off with blue and white tape that said "Police line do not cross".

Alois and Ciel exchanged looks when they saw how high the entrance to ventilation shaft was. Alois raised an eyebrow at Ciel who sighed heavily.

"All right, you can stand on me," he relented and bent down.

Gracefully Alois stepped onto Ciel's back and reached up to tug the cover off the ventilation shaft, moaning about what it was doing to his nails as he did so.

"Do you think that anyone will catch us?" Alois asked as he stared around nervously, for he was about to crawl in.

"No. I think that Spears has planned this down to detail. We haven't passed any students or teachers since we walked through the English department," Ciel answered thoughtfully. There was definitely something going on with the headmaster. "But, hurry up! I can't support your weight for much longer."

The blonde nodded and began to crawl through the narrow passage. As he waited for Alois to unbolt the door from the other side, Ciel pondered the significance of the death.

It wasn't normal to have a death in school. If he wasn't born into the family that he was and was not aware of the existence of Grim Reapers and Demon, then he would have dismissed the death as just being an accident, but because he was Ciel Phantomhive he couldn't just walk away from it like a normal person.

It could not be a coincidence that he and Alois had mentioned the deceased teacher to Sebastian the previous day and he then turned up dead the next day.

He jumped when he heard a sound from behind him. Alois stuck his head out of the unlocked door.

"Are you coming in or not?" he hissed. "For now the Police Officer outside the other door has his back towards it, but he could turn around at anytime."

Ciel followed him in and they crept down the stairs quietly and slowly in order to make as little noise as possible. As they neared the bottom he spotted the chalk outline of where the body had been. The body had been taken away, but the evidence had been left behind, sealed in plastic bags.

Ciel picked one up gingerly and noted, with surprise, that it contained a potato. He took a photo of it using his phone and gestured at Alois to do the same for the crime scene. He would have whispered, but he felt nervous as there was only a thin wooden door and a strip of safety glass between them a Police Officer. Through the strip of glass he could see the back of the Police Officer's fluorescent jacket.

He rotated in order to take in the crime scene. The outline of the corpse was lying a metre away from the last step which was suspicious- if the victim had slipped and fallen down the stairs he would have been found closer to the last step. If he had been pushed with force he would have fallen faster and landed further away from the staircase.

Alois nudged Ciel. "I'm done," he mouthed.

Ciel nodded and they left the stairwell in the reverse that they entered. Alois crawled out the vent and dusted himself off.

"Any theories so far?" the blonde enquired once they were out of the vicinity of the crime scene.

"It was murder," Ciel answered cryptically as set his bag down on the floor and sat down on a plastic chair.

The pair had adjourned to the school hall which was devoid of people for once. Ciel browsed the crime scene photos on Alois' phone to view the evidence. There was several evidence bags with bloodied potatoes along with scalpels and potato corers.

"He must have been carrying equipment for a practical," he mused. "The prep room is upstairs, but his classroom is on the floor below. The scalpels were thrown in the air when he fell and he landed on them when he fell which explains the blood."

Alois rolled his eyes. "Sorry for being slow, but how can you tell that this is murder?"

"Oh, sorry."

Out of his history exercise book Ciel tore a page and drew some rough sketches which explained the position of the corpse and what the position would be if the teacher had fallen down by accident.

"I understand now," Alois brightened up. "You're so smart, Ciel."

"I've just read too much Sherlock Holmes. You're the one with all the gossip. Tell me everything you know about Mr. Mills."

"Well, he's single, his breath sometimes smells of tobacco so I guess that he is a smoker. He isn't well liked for pupils that had him last year for Biology, a majority of them did not get above C which is a pass grade..." Alois paused. "Do you think that one of them murdered him?"

He looked over at Ciel who made a face that indicated that he wasn't too happy with the theory, but had no other suspects that he could think of.

"I can't think of any other motives at the moment. What else do you know about what happened last year?"

"The main thing that he messed up was the coursework which was on the subject of Osmosis."

"The movement of water?"

"Yes. Their practical mainly involved chopping up potato cores, submerging them in sucrose solution and observing weight change. The results were then used in the actual coursework which he marked incorrectly and the mistake was never picked up until the coursework was moderated by the exam board," Alois explained.

Ciel raised an eyebrow. "Potatoes. There were a few found next to the dead body, covered in blood. You also need something to cut a potato with- there were also bloodied scalpels. I think that we have established the motive for the murder. Now all we need are suspects."

The security camera in the corner of the hall caught his eye. He knew where to go to establish suspects. Security cameras were dotted in key locations around the school. As the pupils affected were in Year 11 they have all left in the summer of the previous year so it would be easy to spot them using the video footage.

"I think we need to go and visit Ronald Knox."

The detective due found the school security guard in his office talking loudly on his mobile phone about getting together people for a group date after work. He looked up as they entered without knocking, and ended his phone conversation immediately.

"What do you want, Phantomhive?"

Ciel perched himself on Ronald's desk. "The camera footage for this morning."

Ronald's eye twitched for a second before he answered. "You can look, but you won't find anything there. I've already given copies to the Police."

That's my theory out the window, Ciel thought to himself disappointedly. He had been sure it was right, or at least very possible. It was time to go back to the drawing board.

"Surely, there's not harm in double checking," Alois interceded. "It would at least tell us who was in the vicinity at the time."

The reaper seemed to consider it for a few seconds before he stood up and beckoned Ciel to sit in his chair. He brought up the camera footage on his computer screen and selected ones from 6:00am and onwards. The camera in the car park showed all the teacher arriving one by one and running into school through the lashing rain.

"As Spears has asked you to investigate I can't exactly say no, but you won't find anything out of the ordinary," he warned and sat himself on a chair in the corner of his office to watch Ciel. "It's also a hint."

"The fact that there is nothing significant recorded?"

Ronald didn't answer. Alois moved to watch the footage over Ciel's shoulder.

"Ooh, Miss Moore just picked her nose and ate it- she's a Food Tech teacher; she should know better," Alois commented with a giggle.

"Alois, it's a murder investigation..." Ciel sighed and itched his head. The only people in the school prior to the murder were teachers and he couldn't imagine any of them suddenly murdering a fellow teacher unless there was an inciting cause.

"There's Mr. Gove," his detective assistant pointed to a figure on the screen.

Ciel perked up and watched the science teacher enter the corridor still dressed in his outdoor coat and gloves. A few minutes later he could be seen entering the prep room and coming out carrying a box of equipment. The victim then turned into the stairwell where the body was found. The timestamp on the video said 7:30am.

"There's no camera in the actual stairwell so we can't see what actually happened," Ciel said disappointedly and rewound the video back to check for anything that he might have missed the first time.

As he did he thought he spotted something move across the video a few seconds after the teacher entered the stairwell so he paused the video and zoomed in. On the screen was a dark black blur. Whatever it was, it was too fast to be picked up by the camera.

Ciel narrowed his eyes. It had to be something not human and the only otherworldly being that he knew that wore black and would murder someone was a certain demon. A demon named Sebastian Michaelis.

Abruptly he stood up and turned to Alois. "We're going now," he told him in a tight voice.

"Phantomhive, before you leave I have a message to relay from Spears," Ronald called out after them.

"What is the message?"

"When you make your contract you have to do it in the presence of a Grim Reaper. He thinks that there is a chance that you might not adhere to the instructions that he gave you."

Ciel left the office without bothering to reply. Alois shot him a concerned look as they walked down the corridor at a fast pace.

Once Ciel was sure that no one was around he stopped in the middle of the school hall.

"I know who committed the murder. I also know their motive," he said, now absolutely sure that this theory was correct.

"Who?" Alois knew the answer from Ciel's reaction, but he asked anyway.

"Sebastian Michaelis."

"How did you deduce that?"

Ciel held up one finger. Despite the seriousness of the situation he couldn't help but enjoy the fact that he felt like Sherlock Holmes demonstrating his brilliance to Watson.

"The Grim Reapers know that he did it which is why Spears got us to examine the crime scene and Knox let us watch the camera feed. If it wasn't him then there was no way that we would be able to solve the crime without viewing the body or knowing the results of a post mortem."

"How do they know that he committed the murder?"

"Cinematic Record. One of them judged his soul and must have viewed his final moments and seen who the murderer was. They also seem to be able to sense a demon's presence so it was obvious to them."

Alois weighted Ciel's explanation and frowned. "You've made some valid points, but you don't have any solid evidence.

Ciel held up another finger. "A demon doesn't leave behind  _solid_  evidence. All he left behind was a black blur on the security camera footage. It was him rushing past the camera at high speed to enter the stairwell."

"But why murder Mr. Gove? I know we said that he was a bad teacher, but that isn't enough of a motive."

"Remember what Spears said, he was going to start covering my Physics lessons. My grade would have slipped which would be detrimental to my education. He wouldn't be "one hell of a butler" if he let his master's grades drop. The school must have sent a letter home to inform my parents of the change in teacher and he must have read it."

The blonde version of Watson took in all of the points that his intellectual superior had listed and added a query.

"Why go to all of this trouble in the first place?"

Ciel began to pace across the hall. "Act 3, Scene 1 of Romeo and Juliet. The events of this scene set off the chain of events that results in the tragic end of the play. This is an equivalent. He knows that I know that he is a demon. He has left behind evidence that he committed the murder so I will have no choice but to confront him and admit that I know everything. This will results in making a contract for my soul and our stalemate will be over," he said a little sadly before adding. "The reapers are not doing anything to interfere so I will make the contract as quickly as possible."

"Are you absolutely that you are right about all of this?"

Ciel smiled. "I'm very sure."

His ancestor had given him the main hint that he had needed to solve the mystery. He had described how Sebastian had set up a false witness to testify that Alois was to blame for the fire that had killed his parents.

_"I have realised all the trouble that Sebastian went to in order to frame Alois Trancy for the death of my parents. This had proved to me that he was willing to do anything in order to consume my soul."_

Now he was going to have to return home for the final time as a free human and then he was going to sell his soul to a demon. But he had to give Sebastian the message that the other Ciel Phantomhive had wanted him to give.

Alois picked up on his best friend's mood. "I suppose the time has come."

"It has. Alois, you've been a very good friend to me and I don't blame or hate you or your ancestor for what he did to the other Ciel."

"Thank you, Ciel. I enjoyed my time as your friend and in the unlikely event that you somehow escape the Grim Reapers and Sebastian, you can run away with me. I've been thinking about it for a while. I was just created as a pawn in this chess game and my use is about to end," Alois said with a smile, knowing that he was never going to see his best and only friend ever again.

"Good bye, Alois and thank you for helping me. I might see you again after this, but I don't think so. Everything comes to an end tonight."

The headmaster of Weston College stared out the window of his office at the figure of Ciel Phantomhive fading into the distance. A shadow of a smile flickered across his face He turned to his work colleagues.

"He has worked it out. Everything begins tonight."

"For us at least," Ronald affirmed.

"For the brat, everything ends, apart from his heartbeat," Grell agreed with a high pitched cackle. "I can't wait to have Sebas-chan under my control!"

Will used his death scythe to hit Grell over the head. "We have been waiting for this moment for 35 years. Do not ruin it Sutcliffe."

"It begins to tonight," Will said to himself quietly. "Finally."

The demon butler was dusting the bookshelves in the library when he heard his young master enter the house. Judging by the lack of noise he was alone. Sebastian smiled.

Murdering the inept science teacher had paid off. Their stalemate had ended.

* * *

**A/N:**

English Secondary School system:

You start the first year, Year 7 at the age of 11 and you leave at the end of Year 11 at the age of 16 having completed GCSEs.

Before school there is registration with a form tutor for half an hour where you are registered and do activities as a form.

In Vitro Fertilisation is process in which the a egg is fertilised by sperm outside the body.

Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis refers to the procedures that are performed on embryos prior to implantation.

I briefly studied both at school a few years ago and looked at the moral and ethical implications as some people can select an embryo to implant just because it has desirable feature like blonde hair and blue eyes.

If anyone wants to know about it in more detail I would recommend researching it

*: This fact is actually true. However women were allowed to be in same sex relationships.

If you have done GCSE English Literature it very likely that you will know Act 3, Scene 1 of Romeo and Juliet very well... It is a teacher favourite as is Of Mice and Men and you have to know it in detail to get a high grade.

The teacher is named after Michael Gove who is the Secretary of State for Education and no one is very fond of him at the moment in school and the January exam series has been terminated and keeps trying to completely change the curriculum.


	2. Confrontation

**All in the Golden Afternoon**

**Chapter 2:**

Ciel took a deep breath and filled his lungs. Tonight, his soul was going to be tied to a demon forever and he would never see any of his family or friends again. He knew that the reapers weren't just going to let him make the contract and walk away. He was probably going to have to stay in whatever realm the Grim Reapers lived in until he died.

He unbuttoned the top two button of his school shirt to ensure that he still had his ancestor's ring, an automatic reflex, as if he had lost it somewhere his plan would never work. Subtly, Ciel smiled, ironically he was going to end up exactly like the ancestor that he had once loathed- in contract with a demon.

Slowly and nervously, Ciel made his way down the hallways, taking small steps to prolong the short time that he had left as a free human. As he did the already grey sky darkened and it began to pelt down heavily with rain. Ciel smirked as he thought back to what he had said about Pathetic Fallacy that very morning.

"Young master Ciel, if you would like to see me, I'm in the library," the demon's voice called out to him, as if to mock his effort at delaying. "Your parents have gone out for the day so you don't have to worry about being overheard."

With bated breath, Ciel entered the library and brushed his hair out of his right eye. He stood opposite Sebastian and there was silence for a few minutes as they stared at each other.

Finally Sebastian broke the silence. "You're home early, didn't you have school today?"

"You know that I didn't; you committed the murder that caused the school to be closed."

"Whatever makes you think that I did that?"

"You're a demon," Ciel answered immediately without any hesitation. "You contracted with my ancestor and ended up killing him?" The other Ciel had written that he was going to goad Sebastian into killing him, but he didn't actually know what had happened as the journals had been written when his ancestor was still living in the human realm.

Sebastian picked up on the question and his eyes glinted a blood red. "Yes, I killed him."

"That was what he wanted. He had nothing left to live for and he wasn't happy with spending eternity with you."

Sebastian felt stung by the insult, but he realised that it was true. After his master had been turned into a demon, they had both changed and had treated each other with animosity and dislike.

"His last gift to you was his death," Ciel continued on. "It has given you freedom to do what you want and make other contracts, has it not?"

The demon was stunned by the words. The reason behind all the ridiculous requests that he had been given, had been that his demon master had been trying to goad him into killing him so he was free to make contracts again? The boy had clearly cared for him more than he had thought.

"Why would he do all of this for me?"

"Can't you see, Sebastian?" Ciel sighed in exasperation before continuing. "He asked me to give you a message."

The time had finally come for Ciel to carry out what his ancestor had requested him to do. He hadn't been looking forward to the moment as he felt very embarrassed saying and doing it, but now it gave him the means of persuading Sebastian to go to Weston College with him to make the contract.

"What did he want to tell me?" Sebastian held his breath in anticipation.

Ciel raised one eyebrow elegantly. "I will only tell you if you promise to come with me to Weston College tonight."

Now Sebastian fully understood why the Grim Reapers had been so active in manipulating the Phantomhive family tree. They wanted him, the demon that had an affinity for a boy called Ciel Phantomhive and could be manipulated by the aforementioned boy, or at least someone with the same face. Worst of all, he had fallen right into the trap.

"I want proof that you will actually tell me. You could tell me a part of it?" he said thoughtfully, now being careful not to full further into the trap.

For some reason Ciel blushed red and looked unsure. "All right... He also asked me to try something out. So... I guess I will do that part...Can you bend down a little, you're too tall."

Sebastian followed the order, wondering exactly what the boy was going to do. It wasn't possible for the boy to knock him out and then drag him to the Grim Reapers as he was a demon so he couldn't think of anything that Ciel was likely to do.

Ciel took a deep breath before pressing his soft lips to Sebastian's cold ones. His ancestor had wondered what it would be like to kiss his butler and had requested whoever found the journal to do it his place. Ciel drew his lips away after a second. However Sebastian pulled his face back and returned the kiss, but more passionately.

"Sebastian?" Ciel murmured against his lips and tried to pull away. "Stop Sebastian!" he said more forcefully.

Sebastian let him go and licked his lips, savouring the hint of the soul he had tasted. He had lost control once the boy's lips had touched his and he didn't regret it either.

With a tissue from his pocket, Ciel wiped his mouth. "Now will you come to Weston College with me tonight?"

"Yes I will, young master," Sebastian bowed and licked his lips again. "You are very delicious if I may say so."

Ciel scowled before walking past him to go upstairs to his bedroom and change. If he was going to end his life tonight, there was no way he was going to be wearing his school uniform.

He brushed back his hair and stared at his reflection in the mirror. He thought about the touch of Sebastian's lips on his and his right eye glowed purple momentary along with a flash of a pentagram. He smirked.

"Just as I thought," he said out loud.

As he placed his eye patch over his right eye and pulled his favourite pair of jeans on, he went over his plan in his head. Tonight he was going to take a gamble, the biggest gamble of his life. If it didn't work, then he would be doomed to spending the rest of his life in servitude to the Grim Reapers. For some reason the prospect was not particularly appealing.

If he had never found his ancestor's journals he would have never had any chance of escaping the Grim Reapers.

Ciel took his ancestor's ring off the necklace chain and placed it in his pocket. He was going to be needing it later.

For a moment he looked around the bedroom that he had been his for sixteen years. There was his prized bookshelf of Sherlock Holmes anthologies, his awards for Piano playing and his certificates for winning Maths competitions. He remembered that he always used to wear his lucky socks whenever he entered a competition so he fished them out from the back of a drawer and pulled the on.

Tonight he was going to need all the luck that he could get.

Once he was ready, he returned to the library to find Sebastian staring out the window at the now dark sky. There was a full moon and the milky light bathed the demon butler's form white, making him appear almost angelic which was ironic.

"The riddle you were so interested it led me to find a secret room below this floor," Ciel informed him as he walked into the library.

Sebastian quirked an eyebrow at the mention of the mysterious riddle that he had never actually seen. "I did think that the floor by one of the walls sounded hollow when I walked across it. Was the riddle easy to solve?"

"Fairly, there were a few puzzles to solve after the riddle though. My ancestor liked his games."

"He did. Young master, I think you may want to pull up your trousers. They look as if they are about to fall down," Sebastian said and walked closer to the boy, now noticing the strip of pale white skin that was showing, which made his craving for Ciel Phantomhive's soul even greater.

Ciel looked down momentarily before pulling them up. "It's fashionable."

"Is that so? Fashion certainly has changed since I dressed the original Ciel Phantomhive. You would look better in a pair of shorts and knee high socks as opposed to those jeans," Sebastian commented and waited for his reply. There was something that he wanted to check.

The boy glared at him. "This is not the time to be talking about fashion, Sebastian. Are you ready to leave or not?"

"Yes, my Lord," Sebastian bowed.

He was ready to follow his master to the Grim Reapers' lair. He had a very good idea about what was going on with the boy so he was confident that his master would be able to escape making a contract to the benefit of the Grim Reapers.

The game was afoot.

In addition, he was a little, more like extremely, interested in what the original Ciel Phantomhive wanted to say to him, if that chaste kiss had been any indication.

* * *

Grell, who had been lurking on the roof assigned as a lookout, had spotted the handsome figure of the demon Sebastian Michaelis and the whelp of a boy called Ciel Phantomhive, walking up the road to the college.

He hung himself upside down from the edge of the roof and dangled his head into Will's open office window to inform him.

"They've arrived."

"The time has come. We shall join the demon and the boy in the school hall at the appropriate time. Until then we have to stay in the shadows. Pass the message onto Ronald Knox," Will instructed Grell.

Sebastian followed his master into the school hall without any hesitation. He had sensed the presence of the Grim Reapers immediately and had spotted Grell on the roof from a distance, but he knew that the reapers would stay away until the contract was made.

Ciel walked calmly into the centre of the hall and tried to slow down his hammering heartbeat. He couldn't back out now that he had come this far. His ancestor had given up his soul in order to get revenge, he was now going to do the same for him.

"Sebastian Michaelis, will you make a contract with me?" he said in a clear and loud voice from the benefit of the eavesdropping Grim Reapers.

"I will. What are your conditions?" Sebastian replied. The time had finally come for him to be bound to the soul that he had been craving and know what his former master had wanted to tell him.

"You will obey any orders that I give you unconditionally, but the power to order you can be transferred to another person of my choice. The contract will end when that person no longer has any use for you. Do you agree to those terms?"

As Ciel spoke his hand brushed past his trouser pocket in a seemingly natural manner and he slipped his ancestor's ring on his finger and kept his hand in his pocket.

The demon spotted the action with his sharp eyes and he knew that he could agree to the contract with the purpose of making him a servant to the Grim Reapers forever. Ciel Phantomhive had found a way out of making the contract.

"I agree to those terms," Sebastian answered and approached the boy. "Now I need to mark you."

He tore off his glove with his teeth. He pushed back Ciel's head gently and undid the know tying the eye patch. Sensibly, Ciel kept his eye closed and Sebastian covered the eye with his hand.

"You are now mine and this marks proves it."

Like a puppet with the strings cut loose, the boy slumped into his butler's arms.

White. Everything was white.

Ciel blinked and stared in front of him. There was nothing there but blindingly white space. He looked down at himself to find that he was wearing his favourite jeans and t shirt. He tried to remember what he had been doing and it came back to him in a flash.

He had just made a contract with Sebastian. The one that allowed the demon to be controlled by the Grim Reapers. As he thought about it he noted that the headache that had plaguing him ever since he had found the ring had faded.

"Who are you?" A voice behind him enquired.

Ciel whirled round to face someone that looked as if he could be his reflection in the mirror, only he was wearing different clothes; black shorts with matching knee high socks, a white blouse with a black ribbon and a plain navy blue jacket. The other person's hair was the same shade of blue grey as his and the left eye was the same shade of azure blue. The right eye had a purple pentagram which clinched the mysterious person's identity.

"You're Earl Ciel Phantomhive," Ciel said in surprise.

The other Ciel's eyes widened. "I am. I take it that you are my descendant that found the ring?"

"I did."

Ciel marvelled at how the other Ciel's voice sounded exactly like his only with a more refined tone. He wasn't sure what he would say when his ancestor found out about the Grim Reaper's contract.

"I hope that I did not make it too hard. What is your name?"

The Earl's expression hardened. "You looked exactly like me which is excusable as we are related, but to have the same name... Who are your parents?"

"Earl Vincent Phantomhive and Lady Rachel Phantomhive."

Ciel knew it would not be very wise to mention that his best friend was Alois Trancy as he knew from reading the journals how much his ancestor detested him.

"I see. What school do you attend?"

"Weston College."

It would not be sensible at this point to mention that the headmaster was William T. Spears and Grell Sutcliffe was a History teacher, Ciel decided.

His ancestor frowned and sighed. "I have been a part of you since you picked up the ring, but I can only permeate your consciousness when your mind is at its most vulnerable which is when you are asleep or when you have contact with a demon so I don't know much about you. Would you explain what is happening?"

From this Ciel knew that his theory about his ancestor's soul slowly merging with his was right. After pondering the vivid dreams that he had had and the intermittent headaches that had started occurring since he had found the ring and worn it around his neck, he had started suspecting that he had parts of the original Ciel Phantomhive within him. This theory had given him the idea that he could escape the contract that he was being forced to make.

Whilst he was still human Earl Ciel Phantomhive's soul had been stolen and swapped around, all using a ring, this lead to the ring having traces of his soul which then gave the ancestor that picked up the ring fragments of the original Ciel's soul if he or she put it on. Ciel the second had never directly put the ring on so the fragments had attacked him when he was the most vulnerable. This meant that part of Ciel was already contracted with Sebastian, making the new contract void or so he hoped. He hadn't quite expected to have a confrontation with his ancestor within his own mind- he assumed the place where they were now was within his own mind.

"My name is Ciel Phantomhive and I am 16 years old," Ciel began to explain. "I am your descendant, but I am a result of In Vitro Fertilisation."

"What is that?" his ancestor looked puzzled, but intrigued.

"It's a long story, but you have to know all of it," Ciel replied. "It's absolutely necessary."

The teenager Earl nodded. "I have been waiting for someone to pick up the ring for eternity, I can wait a little longer to see Sebastian."

Ciel did not catch the significance of the last sentence as he launched into an explanation about his birth, the Grim Reapers, Sebastian and the threats that the Grim Reapers had made his he didn't make the contract.

"I take it that you have made the contract that they wanted you to make," Earl Ciel said calmly when Ciel had finished.

"Yes. Then I slipped on the ring, believing that it would make the new contract invalid as part of me which is your soul, is already contracted with Sebastian. I didn't expect this to happen," Ciel answered and glanced round at the white surroundings.

His ancestor grimaced. "I did not expect things to turn out this way either. Someone was supposed to take the ring and put it on, making the fragments of my soul bind to theirs which would hopefully attract Sebastian to them, then they would pass on the message and carry out my request," he blushed momentarily. "I never expected the Grim Reapers to be reincarnating my parents, creating a copy of me and recreating Weston College..." he signed heavily. "I never factored the possibility of any of that happening into my plan."

"What are you going to do now?"

The Earl concentrated for a few seconds, to Ciel it felt like an age. Then the Earl smiled angelically at his descendant. Ciel raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"I am sorry for all of this, Ciel. You were artificially created and your soul has been bartered with, all because I existed. You do not have to worry now. I will solve the rest," Ciel Phantomhive the first held out his hand to Ciel Phantomhive the second who hesitated before grasping it.

He had been expecting his ancestor to let go of his hand and then explain the plan. He had not been expecting to feel a sharp pain at the back of his neck and black spot to appear on his vision.

As he fell he could vaguely hear his ancestor speaking, in a voice that sounded garbled as it was coming from down a long tunnel.

"Those Baritsu lessons from Tanaka finally made themselves useful," Earl Ciel Phantomhive caught his descendant just before he collapsed.

"I'm sorry Ciel and thank you for everything that you have done for me," he said softly and laid him on the ground.

He picked up his descendant's hand gently and slid the ring off his finger.

"I never calculated that this would happen, but I have always been able to adapt. As we are very compatible I should be able to take over his body," Ciel Phantomhive the first said out loud to himself.

He slipped the ring back on his thumb, like he had always done in the 19th Century and watched the white turn into black. He had absorbed his descendant's memories when they had touched hands so he knew exactly what was happening.

It was time to see Sebastian again.

* * *

Sebastian stared down at the teenage boy that he held in his arms, observing for signs of life. The boy's body had been still since he had made the contract. Using his teeth he pulled off his glove and felt the boy's neck for a pulse, noting as he did, the cold temperature of the ghostly pale skin.

He wondered which Ciel Phantomhive would be present when the boy's body came to life again. His precious young master?

After spotting the contract symbol on the descendant's right eye, he had formulated the hypothesis that the original Ciel's soul was somehow attached to the descendant- this suspicion had been confirmed when he had spied on Ciel getting dressed for school that morning, through means of double reflection, he had spotted the Phantomhive ring on a silver chain around the boy's neck.

To be doubly sure of his theory Sebastian had made specific comments and observed the boy's reactions. Ciel Phantomhive the second was a polite and reserved boy whereas Ciel Phantomhive the first had always been demanding and less polite so he had known when his young master's soul had been dominant due to the scowling and the annoyed replies.

His ears pricked up at the sound of a pair of shoes tapping against the laminate floor of the school hall. William T. Spears in his customary black suit and polished shoes was walking towards him.

"You're mine now, demon," he said in a slight smug voice. "When he wakes up, he will transfer the power to order you, over to me. Then we will take him to our realm. Don't worry about his health, we will keep him alive or at least his soul."

Sebastian raised his eyebrows. "So that was what you wanted all along, the power to make me do your bidding? For this you illegally reincarnated souls and genetically engineered a child with the appearance of Ciel Phantomhive?"

Will stopped right in front of him. "Yes. The Grim Reapers and Demons are at the brink of war and we need you on our side. You are... unique as a demon, you will do anything for only one soul. It would be useful if you converted others into your way of thinking."

The key to the Grim Reaper's motive had been there all along. When Sebastian had visited Weston College for the first time, Will had stated that there was a shortage of souls for Grim Reapers which suggested that they were being stolen by something else that needed souls to survive.

"How did you convince Ciel Phantomhive the second into giving away his soul for this?" Sebastian asked and tightened his grip on his young master. The thought of him being taken away by the reapers was not pleasant for him.

Will pushed his glasses up his nose. "I threatened to murder his parents and his only friend. That was the only reason we reincarnated Trancy and made sure that he met the boy, he was just a useful bargaining tool. As I thought that the boy might welcome the idea of his parents dying, I made sure to make a threat on Trancy's life. But, enough of that, we have got what we need now. Once the boy wakes up and issues the order for you to be under my control, we can leave here."

"Good job on killing that science teacher," Ronald Knox interrupted the deadly silence that had been permeating the atmosphere in the school hall by striding in with his death scythe. "You sped up events again and made our job easier. Did you ever think of killing him, Will?"

Will looked insulted. "Of course, why do you think I didn't fire him after that fiasco last year? If the demon hadn't done it, I would have killed him myself in order to spur Phantomhive into making the contract."

Sebastian kept quiet, allowing them to argue to stall for time. His young master needed to take control of his descendant's body and for that , time was needed.

Grell swanned into the hall carrying his death scythe, to join his co workers. "Sorry, I'm late. I was waiting for my nail varnish to dry."

Will responded by hitting him over the head with his own death scythe. "Could you please act professionally, just this once. It is an important moment that we have been waiting years for."

"You cannot celebrate until the job has been properly done and unfortunately for you, that is not the case," the voice of a 13 year old aristocrat echoed through the hall.

Sebastian looked down and saw the his young master had returned to the land of the conscious. Judging from the voice and the attitude it was the original Ciel Phantomhive, his beloved young master. His suspicion was confirmed when the boy slid out of his arms and hissed,

"I can stand up by myself."

Grell did not notice the difference as he was never very observant. "Why is that not the case, brat?"

"Because he is the original Ciel Phantomhive," Will answered in an emotionless voice and for once he actually looked genuinely unhappy rather than just annoyed. "I should have known..."

His colleagues whirled round on him. They always followed his orders as he was normally right about everything so when it came to a time that it actually mattered and he was wrong, they were not happy.

"What do you mean "I should have known"?" Grell demanded, his voice rising dangerously high.

Will groaned. "The descendant knew who Undertaker was without me describing him..."

"What had happened to the contract that the second brat made?" Ronald asked.

Ciel cleared his throat and pointed at his eye which was glowing with Sebastian's pentagram. "Since my soul is in control here, my original contract is the one that stands. If my descendant regains control the new one might work, but I do not think that it will happen. The boy gave up."

"He gave up!?" Grell screeched, the events were finally beginning to sink in properly. "I spent the past 3 months teaching brats for nothing!"

"He had nothing left to live for. He was artificially created by the reapers to lure Sebastian in, that was his only use. There is nothing left for him- he will not attempt to regain control. Therefore my contract stands, you cannot have Sebastian- he is mine," Ciel cocked his head to the side before adding "To use a more modern term; you are all screwed."

Grell screamed and powered up his chainsaw death scythe. "I'm going to kill you this time, brat! You always get in my way!"

Angrily he slashed at Ciel who didn't have time to dodge. Sebastian grabbed him and pulled him out the way just before the death scythe loomed down on him.

Ronald raised his eyebrows. "You know, I think that Sutcliffe is right for once. He does get in the way," he powered up his death scythe and dashed towards the butler and his master.

Ciel narrowed his eyes. "This is an order Sebastian, kill them!"

Sebastian bowed. "Yes, my Lord."

As he said the line he threw himself and his young master to the ground as the lawnmower death scythe passed over where their heads had been.

Sebastian stared down at his much missed master that he had not been with for over 100 years who was squirming at Sebastian's weight on top of him. The butler kissed him fully on the lips, delicately at first, then becoming harsher. He was always stronger when he had direct contact with the soul that he was contracted to. In order to kill 3 Grim Reapers he needed all the strength he could obtain. In all his past conflicts with the reapers he had never beaten them, he had always ended up retreating.

As Sebastian's lips touched his Ciel flushed red and decided not to protest as the demon's lips were unexpectedly soft and it was quite enjoyable. He pouted when Sebastian finally ended the kiss and sprang up to block him from a swing from Grell's death scythe.

"Don't worry, young master, there will be plenty of time for kisses later," Sebastian said as he drew out a handful of knives from the pocket of his jacket. "I just need to get rid of some annoyances so we can get some peace."

Grell screeched. "First, you get kissed by Sebas-chan with enthusiasm and then he calls me an annoyance because of you, I hate you, brat!"

Sebastian ignored him as he was trying to fight off Ronald and protect Ciel at the same time. Sighing, he picked up Ciel and slung him under his arms to make it easier. The boy weighed so little it didn't take much of an effort. He would still be able to fight to the best of his abilities whilst carrying his master.

As Grell's chainsaw loomed down on them again, the demon sprung up and stepped on Grell's face, vindictively making sure to squash his nose in the process. The red haired reapers turned on Sebastian again.

"You stepped on my face!"

Using Grell's momentary lapse in judgement Sebastian stuck out the arm that was not occupied with holding his young master, and purloined the reaper's red rimmed glasses from his face, pulling the chain that held the glasses so that it choked the reaper. Then he crushed the glasses in his white gloved hand.

Grell's sight turned extremely blurred and he could only make out crude black shapes. So he swung his death scythe at a black shape to the right of him, failing to realise that it was not his intended target and his co-worker and perpetual crush, William T. Spears.

Will ducked the blow and grabbed hold of Grell's ear.

"It's me, you idiot," he said harshly before turning to the demon who was currently throwing tableware at Ronald Knox's death scythe in an attempt to jam the motor.

"Ciel Phantomhive, Sebastian Michaelis, I have a proposition for both of you," he said loudly to catch their attention.

* * *

Sebastian paused in the act of throwing a set of knives at Ronald Knox. Under his left arm Ciel Phantomhive perked up. Propositions were his area of expertise, not fights. His butler had already done several cartwheels whilst fighting which were making him feel nauseous.

"Sebastian, stand down and let go of me," he ordered and once he had his feet on the floor he smiled at the trio of Grim Reapers; Grell had Sebastian's shoeprint imprinted on his face and Ronald's death scythe had a 50 piece cutlery set stuck in it like a dartboard. "Have you all decided that you can't win against me?"

There was a brief silence as the two battle weary reapers glanced at the superior for permission to reply to the insult. Will glared at them. He had only chosen to work with them as he had plenty of compromising information on them so if they betrayed him he would be able to retaliate to keep them quiet, but this was mostly aimed at Grell who always strayed from the right path. The disadvantage of pairing up with them had been that they were prone to fighting before thinking.

"For now, yes, but remember Phantomhive, it's only because of us that you gained this opportunity to possess a body. If it were not for us, you would just be fragments of a soul."

Ciel raised an eyebrow. "I take it that you are about to ask me for something in return for your gratuitous service to the Phantomhive family."

At his side Sebastian tensed ever so slightly. Now that he knew that the Grim Reapers had been after him all along, he guessed that Will's proposition involved him somewhere. He didn't want to be separated from the human Earl Ciel Phantomhive that had only just returned.

"If you haven't already guessed, the Grim Reapers are planning to launch a war on demons so they stop indiscriminately devouring souls that we need to judge and collect. We were originally going to use Michaelis to turn other demons onto our side and act as a spy whilst the other Ciel Phantomhive's soul was contracted to him, but since you have thwarted us we have no choice but to enter the war without any demon assistance."

"What do you want from me?" Ciel asked simply, completely unperturbed by Will's monologue.

"Whilst we are fighting we will be a little short handed at the Grim Reaper Dispatch Society so it would be useful if you could make sure that no demons steal souls at places where a large number of souls are due to be judged, that is all. If you are interested I will give you a list."

The teenage Earl considered the proposition carefully. A little excitement in his life once in a while would be good as sometimes the status quo became too tedious. He still wasn't sure whether or not he would take his descendant's identity and live with his butler at his side, finishing school, college and university, eventually succeeding Vincent Phantomhive the second and taking over the company which was something he wouldn't have been able to do in his old life. That said, being privy to future events was interesting...

"What do you think, Sebastian? It is your life as well," Ciel turned to Sebastian, wanting to hear his opinion.

"Your wish is my command. After all, I am just one hell of a butler."

Ciel rolled his eyes. "I do not know if this is just the influence of my descendant's modern memories, but could you please tell me what you are really thinking. That poker face gets annoying to look at!"

Momentarily Sebastian's eyes widened in surprise as he digested the statement. After a moment he rested his hand on the boy's shoulder and spun his round so they were face to face and inhaled the succulent scent of Ciel Phantomhive's soul.

"I desire your soul, but I still want you to live and I will still follow you anywhere you go, as a butler, so the decision is mainly yours. Now that you have achieved revenge and you can live with the reincarnations of your parents, you might simply want to live out your descendant's life as it has everything that your previous life was missing," Sebastian said and tapped his master's chin lightly with his finger. "Or you could choose to run away from the life. The decision is yours."

"Hmm." Ciel removed Sebastian's finger from his face, but kept hold of it. "I think that I will remain as Ciel Phantomhive and live with his parents whilst occasionally doing some work for the Grim Reapers on the side. Normal life can get monotonous and the Phantomhive Earldom no longer act as the Queen's Watchdog so I can get my fun from working for the reapers- I do owe them for accidently giving me the chance to live again," he smirked deviously as he looked down at the ring on his thumb.

The demon smiled at the sight of the smirk; it had always been one of his favourite things about the boy.

Ciel turned around and faced the Grim Reapers who were awaiting his response- only Will was though. Grell was trying to attack Ciel again and Ronald was occupied with holding him back.

"I accept your proposition."

"Good. I will give you the list next week as school will be closed for the rest of the week due to the murder. It will also give you time to acclimatise to your descendant's life," Will answered and strode out of the school hall with a reluctant Grell being dragged away by Ronald behind him. "I must admit that your descendant was more likeable than you."

"So young master, what are you going to do now? Your parents will be arriving home about now," Sebastian flipped open his pocket watch to verify the time.

"Go home and see Mother and Father," Ciel replied slowly. He had never been with his parents since his 10th birthday so living with them at the age of 16 was going to be a new experience.

Sebastian tapped Ciel's lip. "The modern term is "Mum and Dad", young master. You are going to have to acclimatise yourself to speaking differently. Otherwise everyone around you is going to sense that there is something different about you."

Ciel scowled. "Is is me, or have you been touching me quite freely since I returned?"

The demon's response was to stroke his cheek softly. "The lady doth protest too much, methinks. If you don't like me touching you, why did you request your descendant to kiss me?" he smiled deviously and the smile grew as Ciel's cheeks flushed red. "Were you too shy to do it yourself so you got him to do it? I never thought you would be this shy, young master."

Ciel turned his face away from his butler and stared out the window at the glowing white light of the full moon. A new moon, how fitting, he thought to himself, there was certainly something in Pathetic Fallacy. Sebastian turned his face again so he had no choice but to look at the demon.

"All right, Sebastian. I harboured the urge to kiss you and when I became a demon you changed completely so I lost the chance. In order to make up for it I asked whoever picked up the ring to kiss you, as in theory fragments of my soul would be attached to theirs, meaning that you technically would be receiving kiss from me, but things did not go as planned."

The raven haired butler smiled down at his precious young master. "Sometimes you are nothing but a damn brat, sometimes you are, for the lack of a better word, cute. However you will always taste delicious to me and I have always harboured fond feelings towards you."

He bent down and captured Ciel's lips which were soft and tasted of his soul which made the whole experience even better. Ciel's eyes widened before he lost himself in the kiss. He had not been expecting this, he had assumed everything would just go back to how it was before; master and servant, demon and master. Nothing more and nothing less. To have Sebastian return his feeling was nothing short of a dream.

Then he felt a sharp pain in his lower lip and Sebastian pulled away from him.

"What have you done?" Ciel questioned and touched his lips with a cautious finger to find that blood was thinly flowing out of a tiny cut.

"I'm verifying that you are definitely not a demon, young master. I don't want to have to decapitate you again." An unreadable expression crossed the demon's face.

"Decapitate? What are you talking about?"

Ciel had no idea what the demon was referencing. As he came from fragments of Ciel Phantomhive's soul, he was Ciel Phantomhive, but he wasn't the demon Ciel Phantomhive. Because he had his descendant's memories he knew what the demon Ciel had written in his journals so he knew everything that had occurred up until when he had left for the demon realm.

Sebastian looked puzzled for a second, then his expression cleared. Demons didn't have souls so his human young master had no idea of what had transgressed between him and his demon master.

"I was not too fond of you as a demon, so I tore your head off in anger," Sebastian informed him with a smile and observed that blood was still flowing from the boy's lip. "As I have confirmed that you are definitely human, I don't think I will have any trouble with you at all."

"Tch. I knew you only liked me because of my soul," Ciel scowled. But having Sebastian at his side was enough for him; he couldn't expect anything else.

"On the contrary, I like you, full stop. I'm not just after your soul. It may be mouth-wateringly tempting, but if I only desired your soul I would have taken it by now as our contract is finished. No, I just like you."

To prove his point he licked the blood off Ciel's lip with his tongue. The taste set his taste buds aflame with the desire to consume the entire soul, but he quelled it to kiss his master on the cheek.

"Let's go home."

* * *

 

Ciel took one last look at the full moon outside the window before replying to his butler who had just expressed his fondness for his master.

"Let's go home."

The pair walked home side by side down the street. The rain from earlier on in the day had stopped now and instead a cool wind blew through the trees and Ciel's hair, revealing the contract pentagram on his right eye. He flattened down his hair in an attempt to cover in before he got home.

"Do you have any regrets about taking over your descendant's body?" Sebastian asked interestedly as they walked along.

Ciel frowned and ran a hand through his grey blue hair.

"I have the opportunity to be with you again so I do not regret it. Ciel was not happy with his life and being forced to take over Funtom as he had other interests. I wish that there was something I could do for him in return."

As he spoke Ciel stopped dead in his tracks and groaned. He had just recalled something that he had seen in his descendant's memories from earlier on in the day.

"I think we should stop off at Alois Trancy's reincarnation's house. He is planning to run away tonight."

Sebastian raised as eyebrow quizzically. "Do we have to go?"

His master groaned again. "Ciel the second would not want his best friend to run away alone. If we cannot persuade him not to run away, we can just say good bye and thank you."

The butler gave him a strange look, surprised that the words "thank you" had made it out his mouth and that he wanted to say it to someone called Alois Trancy.

"Thank you for being annoying?"

Ciel shook his head. "I have been through Ciel's memories, he is not too annoying- he just has a poor taste in fashion. He was only acting annoying in front of you so that you would prefer Ciel and become closer to him."

"I suppose we should give our thanks," Sebastian sighed. "Was I really manipulated by a pair of 15 year olds?"

"You have lost your touch," Ciel smiled and started walking again.

As they neared the Trancy residence Sebastian sighted Alois Trancy waiting outside in the street. The boy was sitting on his suitcase and staring out into the distance, or rather an endless vista of tall buildings and bright lights. The light from the streetlight above him bathed his blonde hair orange.

"He is there," Sebastian whispered. "Remember to act like your descendant- a modern teenager. If you don't, I have no idea what he will do."

Ciel nodded. He could act like his descendant and a modern teenager. All he had to do was use some abbreviated forms of words, drop his refined accent and slouch his shoulders a little.

Alois spotted Ciel as he approached and waved happily. The blonde stood up and ran towards him before throwing his arms around him.

"Ciel! I thought I would never see you again."

Then he caught sight of Sebastian who was standing on top of a nearby wall, blending in well with the dark sky due to his black outfit. Alois let go of Ciel and looked at him sharply.

"What is the demon doing here?"

"To cut a long story short, the Grim Reapers are going to leave us alone and Sebastian is going to stay with me," Ciel answered in what he hoped sounded like his descendant's voice. As Trancy's reincarnation looked exactly like the original it was hard to look at him kindly.

"For how long is the demon going to stay with you?"

Ciel glanced at Sebastian. "A while," he replied.

Alois shot him a suspicious look before continuing his interrogation. He knew there was a way to test if it really was his best friend that was standing in front of him.

"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary..." he quoted.

Ciel recognised the quote immediately as he had owned some of Edgar Allan Poe's works.

"The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe."

"That's nice," Alois said vaguely before hardening his gaze. "What have you done with my best friend?"

"What do you mean?"

"You're not him. You're the other Ciel Phantomhive!"

Sebastian jumped off the wall he had been standing on and stood at his master's side to reprimand him.

"Your descendant did not know who Edgar Allan Poe was. You just gave yourself away by talking too much."

Ciel glared at Alois and turned to Sebastian. "I knew this was a bad idea. This is the last time I am ever doing anyone a favour."

Sebastian smirked at his response before making a helpful suggestion. "Perhaps it would be best if you resolved this situation with Master Trancy before you resolve not to do any unselfish acts in the future. Trancy is clearly annoyed with you."

Ciel sighed heavily before switching his attention back to Alois.

"I am going to make this as fast as possible as I cannot stand seeing your face again even you are not quite the same person. If I give your friend his body back, the contract that he made with Sebastian will take over my current one, meaning that the Grim Reapers will have control again and will take both of us way. I take it that you do not want this to happen."

Alois' eyes widened at the implication and he searched for a comeback in his mind. It seemed so unfair that his best friend had been used by everyone and his soul had been thrown away and someone else was residing in his body.

"It's just that... it feels that we've all been manipulated by Demons and Grim Reapers that have too much free time on their hands and they play with the human race to ease their boredom for a while."

The teenage Earl could not help but agree. It did seem that some otherworldly beings did have too much free time and interfered in human events to entertain themselves. He shot a glance at his demon butler to check his reaction. The butler caught his glance and smiled back.

"That's not quite right, Master Trancy. The Grim Reapers manipulated this affair out of necessity due to their desperate situation and they broke the law in order to reincarnate you."

"Why are you involved?" Alois spat back. "You could easily get souls without making contracts."

Sebastian wrapped his arms around his young master and sniffed his cheek.

"Because I desire my young master of course."

He planted a kiss on Ciel's cheek and tightened his grip when the red faced boy tried to wriggle out of his arms.

Alois raised his eyebrows at the demon's confession to a human.

"So you are planning to stay with him for an eternity?"

"Yes."

"He is a human, he will die. You also can't turn him into a demon- that's what caused all the trouble last time, wasn't it?"

Ciel winced. "You read my journals."

"Ciel enlisted me to help him so he let me read the parts that involved the other Alois Trancy and I only read a few parts so I don't know everything, but it seems to be the fact that you no longer had a soul that could be consumed that drove Sebastian away from you 100 years ago which led you to formulate this plan. You are just going to repeat the same events."

"Trancy, I have just awoken into a new body and survived being attacked by Grim Reapers, I cannot be bothered to deal with your hysterics at this present time," the Earl waved his hand dismissively. "You can leave London if you like. Sebastian, let's return home."

"Yes, my Lord."

Ciel turned to go.

A peal of laughter burst out from the blonde teenager behind him.

Ciel turned back. "Have you gone insane, Trancy?"

Alois smirked. "You won't last trying to take over Ciel's life. The way that you speak is too condescending and old fashioned as well as the way that you hold yourself. Your parents- I mean Ciel's parents, will notice the change immediately as will everyone at school. You won't last."

The teenager Earl opened his mouth to retort sarcastically , but Sebastian answered for him.

"That is no matter, I will tutor the young master. There is nothing to be concerned about."

At these words Alois' grin grew wider. "I'm afraid that you are also a little stuck in the 19th Century, Sebastian. Just face it."

"What do you suggest I do?" Ciel enquired. "I cannot return this body for the reasons that I previously stated."

"Souls can be merged," Alois suggested thoughtfully. "It was mentioned in your journals. Your soul was merged with my predecessor."

"It was done forcefully and it didn't quite work as I was always confused about who I was and Alois Trancy was able to take over. I do not think that your idea would work."

"Ah yes, but it would not be forceful as Ciel the second is the actual owner of the body and you have already taken ownership. You also have similarities which would make the process easier and you already have his memories. All that we need is his soul," Sebastian interjected. The merging that had occurred in the 19th Century hadn't been carried out with the same intent; Claude Faustus had just wanted Ciel's soul and his body with some memories that belonged to Alois Trancy.

Ciel's eye widened. "Are you taking Trancy's side now?"

The demon smiled down at him. "He has made several valid points to his cause. In addition, I found hearing the words "thank you" come from your descendant very mollifying. He was very well mannered and considerate. You would have better manners if you merged."

"That's your true motive, is it not?"

"Maybe, but the decision is left up to you, young master. Remember that you will not be lost in this merging. Your descendant will be a part of his life too."

"Yes and you might also be able to look at my face without having the desire to kill me," Alois chipped in cheerfully.

"Be quiet, Trancy," Ciel snapped.

He knew that it wasn't morally right to take over a body that wasn't his, but the Grim Reapers had done worse; they had created and raised the boy like a pig raised only for slaughter so what Ciel had done paled slightly in comparison. However that didn't mean that it was the right thing to do.

Ciel closed his eyes.

"Sebastian, Trancy, if this does not work I will find some way to kill both of you," he said and took off the ring, but kept hold of it.

His butler reached out and caught him before he fell.

* * *

Ciel Phantomhive the first opened his eyes and found himself back in the white place where he had spent an eternity waiting for someone to pick up the ring. He looked down at himself to find that he was also wearing the same outfit that he had always worn; black shorts with matching knee high socks, a white blouse with a black ribbon bow and a plain navy blue jacket.

This time there was a difference. His descendant was lying outstretched on the ground where he had left him.

Concernedly, the Earl bent down and checked his pulse just in case. His skin was also very pale, but that could be attributed to the fact that Ciel had used a pressure point to incapacitate his descendant. Fortunately the pulse was at a steady regular rate.

"Ciel? Wake up," the original Ciel said and shook his descendant's shoulder.

The second Ciel stirred and groaned before opening his eyes.

"Why is there a mirror here?" he asked groggily as he wasn't fully conscious yet.

"I am not a mirror- I am your ancestor, Ciel." It felt strange for Ciel the first to call someone that was the spitting image of him, his name.

"Ah," the descendant said and sat up hurriedly. "I remember- you knocked me out and took control of my body. So why have you taken off the ring?"

"So we can merge souls and we will both have control. There is not a lot of difference between us so it will not be difficult- we were just born in different eras."

Ciel narrowed his eyes at his ancestor's explanation. "But you care for Sebastian, I don't"

He knew this for definite as the final line from the last journal had been "As a final request, please kiss Sebastian and inform him that I cared for him."

His ancestor grimaced and blushed. "We can get round that, are you willing to merge?"

"What about the contract?" Ciel the second enquired. "If we merge, both contracts will be valid so the Grim Rea-"

"I have dealt with them. They have let Sebastian and I go, but in return we have to prevent demons from taking souls. Spears is going to give us a list of locations and dates."

"That does sound intriguing," Ciel commented, but a suspicious thought struck him. "Why do you suddenly want to merge? You can be with Sebastian freely- I'm assuming he returned your sentiments."

The teenage Earl wondered how he was going to explain his reasons without mentioning that he had been coerced into it with one of the main reasons being that this Ciel had better manners than him.

"Don't you want your life back? The Grim Reapers will leave us alone now so you can do what you want and live without threats. I have also stopped Alois Trancy from running away."

The descendant absorbed the information silently. He was still bemused as his ancestor's request definitely did not match his personality and was very out of character for a proud person like him. Living a life without the reapers sounded tempting as he had hated their presence and the fact that they had gone as far as to genetically engineer him so that he would have the same face as his ancestor.

But he still hesitated before making a decision.

For the majority of his short life he had always been compared to his brilliant ancestor who had single handedly run the family business and won a Royal Warrant with only his butler at his side, all at the age of 13. It might have been something to do with the fact that he had grown up with the same name and face as his ancestor, but he suspected that even if his father hadn't been a reincarnation, every descendant of the first Ciel Phantomhive would have grown up with the same pressure on them.

Ciel the first saw his descendant's hesitation and searched through the memories that he had stolen to work out why.

"Do not worry about having to live in my shadow. I will be a part of you and you will be a part of me- we will be two halves which is not a shadow, if that is what you are concerned about."

Slowly the descendant raised his head and met his ancestor's eyes. That was right- if they merged he wouldn't feel inferior as a Phantomhive.

"Ciel, remember that you solved my riddle and orchestrated a successful plan to outwit the Grim Reapers- you are worthy of the Phantomhive name," Ciel guessed what had been running through his descendant's mind.

Ciel the second smiled wryly before replying. "You did set a very hard example. I agree to merge."

The Ciels held out their hands to each other and the second Ciel absorbed his ancestor's memories which meant that they were now the same people and could merge.

The butler and blonde bent over Ciel Phantomhive as he lay unconscious on the ground. Without even talking, Alois and Sebastian had formed a temporary truce as their aim was the same, but for different reasons. Alois wanted his best friend back and without the contract that he had formed with Sebastian. The demon wanted his master back with the ability, manners and necessary knowledge to survive in a modern setting so the change in personality wouldn't be detected as easily- it would also stop Alois Trancy from getting angry at him.

The boy on the floor made a noise and slowly cracked open is eyelids. Alois and Sebastian immediately bent closer, but the butler pushed Alois back as he didn't want to confuse Ciel too much.

"Young master, are you all right?" he asked concernedly.

Ciel groaned inaudibly and Sebastian checked his pulse which was now at a normal rate.

"Sebastian," Ciel said slowly and looked up at him.

"I am here and who are you?" It would be interesting to see how the boy replied.

"I'm Ciel Phantomhive, my parents are Earl Vincent and Lady Phantomhive. I used to be engaged to Elizabeth Midford."

"Correct," Sebastian complimented with a smile before gesturing to Alois to come closer. "Now, who is this?"

"Alois... he's a casual acquaintance."

The blonde opened his mouth to correct him and say that they were best friends, but he stopped himself as he recalled how much the original Ciel had hated the other Alois Trancy- casual acquaintance was the best he was going to get for the moment. He had plenty of time to work on improving his status.

"At least you aren't calling me by my surname anymore," he said amusedly. "I can see that you have definitely merged souls.

Ciel nodded and sat up slowly, supported by his butler's hand.

"Do you feel disorientated in any way or confused about who you are? Or who I am?" Sebastian enquired to be perfectly sure that the merging had been successful. The last thing he needed was the boy to go stark raving mad again like he had in the 19th Century, then again that could be attributed to the fact that last time his master's soul had been combined with Alois Trancy's which was not a good combination. In comparison the two Ciel Phantomhives were very compatible.

"No. You're the demon that I have 2 contracts with after all," Ciel answered without any hint of hesitation and stood up. "Alois, are you still staying at my house? If so you are definitely not sharing a bed with me. You can use a sleeping bag and sleep on the floor."

Despite the serious implications of the situation, like the fact he would never fully get his best friend back, Alois burst out laughing and Sebastian smiled.

"Well said, young master, I could not agree more."

His young master's sharp personality was still present as was Ciel the second's kinder personality. The merging was a success.

"Sebastian, could you stop calling me "young master", it makes you sound like a walking anachronism," Ciel requested as they walked along the empty roads to Ciel's house.

"Yes... Ciel," Sebastian replied.

Ciel flushed red at the sound of his actual name come from Sebastian's mouth. Whenever the butler had said his name it was either prefixed by "master" or followed by his surname.

Sebastian spotted the change in colour of Ciel's face and bent closer as they turned the corner.

"Did you like that, Ciel?" he whispered into the boy's ear.

Alois sighed. "I think you two should stop your lovey-doveyness for the time being. We're within view of Ciel's house and Sebastian would be fired if he was caught making moves on Ciel."

Reluctantly Sebastian pulled away and Ciel pouted.

"I wouldn't be one hell of a butler if I wasn't an actual butler," Sebastian said to console his master, before adding his name. "Right, Ciel?"

The boy flushed an even brighter red as they walked up the driveway.

Sebastian pulled out his key and unlocked the door to reveal Ciel's parents waiting in the hallway.

"Where have you all been? It's nearly midnight," Rachel Phantomhive questioned.

"We had a message from Weston College to say there had been a death and that the school was closed until next week. Your mother has been worrying about you all day," Vincent Phantomhive said. "Where did you all go?"

Ciel was slightly stuck for words at the sight of his parents. He had seen them that morning, but he had also seen them lying dead on the floor of his old house.

Sensing this, Sebastian stepped in. "Master Trancy wanted to get something important that he had left at home and he and Master Ciel were going to walk over and get it. I accompanied them as I didn't feel that it was suitable for them to be out so late."

"That's fine, just don't worry us like that ever again," Ciel's mother replied and hugged her son who unusually did not squirm away like he usually did. "That's strange Ciel, you normally don't like being hugged. Is there an ulterior motive at work here? It is coming up to Christmas..."

"No, there's no ulterior motive," Ciel replied. "I just felt like it."

"Ciel and Alois, you can use your time off school to decided which A Levels you want to do and which college you want to go to. Or you could help me design a new product for Funtom," Ciel's father said.

The pair of casual acquaintances exchanged looks. They had avoided deciding about colleges and subjects as Ciel had been sure that he was going to die or at least lose control of his own body and Alois had been planning to run away.

"I'll help you design a new product and Alois can help," Ciel answered, much to his father's surprise.

"So you're finally taking an interest in the family business," he said and gave his son a pleased pat on the shoulder.

Ciel nodded.

"We will talk about it more tomorrow as it is getting late," Vincent said.

Ciel and Alois trudged up the stairs tiredly as it had been a long day full of death and drama, followed by Sebastian who was feeling fatigued even though he was a demon. It had been a stressful day for everyone who had been involved the soul swapping affair.

Sebastian arranged a sleeping bag for Alois on the floor of Ciel's bedroom along with a soft pillow as he was slightly more fond of Alois now that he knew he wasn't really that annoying and it had been an act.

"What are you going to do about the contracts?" the blonde asked once Ciel had left the room to change and clean his teeth.

"I'm not going to take his soul if that is what you are referring to," the demon replied as he fluffed up Ciel's pillows.

"I meant the second contract, the one regarding control of you. The Grim Reapers are bound to notice that he had changed and they might change their minds about leaving you alone if they know there is a chance that they can use you."

"That is a point that- I hadn't appreciated that one yet," Sebastian replied thoughtfully. "It would be best if Ciel transferred control before he meets Spears again, but to who?"

"I will transfer control to Ciel Phantomhive the first," Ciel said from his position in the doorway as he had overheard their conversation. "It was Ciel the second that made the contract so I can do that. Sebastian, do you feel any change?"

"Give me an order."

"I order you to hug Alois," Ciel ordered after a moment of consideration as to make sure that the control had transferred the order would have to be something that Sebastian really didn't want to do.

The demon frowned, but he hugged a very creeped out Alois Trancy, as he felt the compulsion forcing him. He hoped Ciel was not going to have fun making him do more things that he really had no inclination to do.

"I think it worked," Alois said awkwardly as he still really didn't like the demon as it was all his fault that his friend had had to make the contract in the first place.

Tiredly, Ciel yawned. "That's good," he murmured sleepily and got into bed. "Have fun in your sleeping bag, Alois."

Sebastian tucked his master into bed and kissed him on the forehead before turning the lights out and leaving the room.

"Good night, Ciel."

* * *

The next morning Ciel woke up to find a butler standing over his bed with the morning sun filtering through the curtains. Sleepily, Ciel rubbed his eyes and sat up slowly, taking a while to process what was going on.

He was Ciel Phantomhive which meant that the butler was the demon Sebastian Michaelis.

The boy sat up slowly and noticed that Sebastian was holding a tray with a teapot, two cups, a milk jug and a sugar pot.

"Good morning, Ciel," Sebastian greeted with a smile. "How are you feeling? You looked confused for a second."

Ciel stretched his arms and sighed. "I had some strange dreams where I was separately Ciel the first and Ciel the second so I was a little disorientated when I woke up. Not to mention, I had that bloody dream about a raven- I've had that one three times now."

Skilfully, Sebastian poured out the tea into the teacup which Ciel recognised as being a set that he had owned when he was an Earl in the 19th Century. If he recalled correctly it was the Wedgewood Blue and White.

"How did you get hold of the tea set?"

The butler poured milk in followed by sugar. "I found it yellowing at the back of a cupboard in the kitchen so I gave it a good clean," he explained and passed to cup to Ciel who accepted it.

"What's the second cup for?" he questioned as the image of Sebastian joining him in his bedroom to drink tea was somewhat bizarre.

"It was for Alois Trancy in case he was awake, but he seems to be in deep sleep so I will not pour any for him."

They both turned to stare down at the snoring blonde in his sleeping bag who was blissfully unaware what was going on around him.

Ciel glanced at the clock and saw that it was only 7 o'clock in the morning, much to his surprise.

"Why did you wake me up? I don't have school until next week."

"Ronald Knox visited whilst you were asleep," Sebastian informed him. "William T. Spears would like to discuss his proposition with us this morning before all the Reapers leave."

As he spoke he dropped a piece of black cloth into Ciel's unoccupied hand. Ciel picked it up and saw that it was an eye patch that was identical to the one he used to wear. He squinted closer and realised that it was the one that he had worn earlier when he had deliberately walked into Sebastian on a crowded London street. An event that had set his and the Grim Reapers' plans into motion, ending in another contract, the revival of Earl Ciel Phantomhive and the merging of the two Ciels into one.

Seeing the puzzled look, Sebastian explained. "Whilst you were asleep I visited the Trancy residence and found it on the kitchen table. I also found something else..."

Ciel looked up in puzzlement and then he realised. Hiding something in a toilet cistern was not going to fool a demon for long.

Sebastian held up a certain journal, the final one in the set which had the most damning testimony in it; just a minor love confession- his most guarded secret.

"Admittedly, it did take me a while to find this. I would have never thought that someone with my picky young master's face and genes would stick their hand in a toilet cistern."

Ciel made a face. "Have you read them yet?"

"No," the butler answered. "They are private journals that you wrote and a butler never invades the privacy of his master and since you went to a large amount of trouble to hide them away from me, that was all the more reason not to. I assume the journals were what that elusive riddle eventually led to."

Ciel held out his hand for the journal and Sebastian passed it to him. The demon was naturally curious about the contents of the journals, but whatever had been written had been intended for only a Phantomhive to read and he was certain that his master had written something about him which he would become embarrassed about if he knew that Sebastian had read it.

"Would you have read them if you had found them before our status quo ended?" Ciel enquired out of interest as he rested his hand on the leather cover of the journal.

The edges of Sebastian's lips twitched. "I would have, because at the time we were in a stalemate, you were not my master Earl Ciel Phantomhive so I would have been under no obligations to protect your privacy."

Much to his surprise Ciel sighed before saying, "You can read them if you like, but only if you make me a cake later and keep Grell away from me when we visit Spears."

"Duly noted. What cake would you like?"

"Devil's food; I feel like eating chocolate and don't cheat by using readymade chocolate frosting- I know Betty Crocker when I taste it," Ciel ordered as he pushed his bedcovers away and stood up.

Sebastian look affronted. "I would never do such a thing. Would you like my help getting dressed?"

Ciel flushed red like a tomato. "No thank you, I don't need your help to do up buttons."

"Are you feeling embarrassed, Ciel? I have seen it all before, you know."

"I order you to let me dress myself," the boy said forcefully and breathed a sigh of relief when the butler bowed and left the room.

A snigger came from below him and he looked down to see Alois Trancy staring at him.

"Is there something funny?" Ciel asked darkly with a vein twitching in his forehead.

"Just the look on your face when he said that he had seen it all before, but I'm glad- it definitely means that my friend is still there. And don't think that I haven't guessed Earl Ciel Phantomhive willingly merged souls."

Ciel gave him a sharp look. "Why would that be?"

"Because he wouldn't be able to keep up with the schoolwork!" Alois retorted snidely. "The Earl was thirteen when he became a demon whereas Ciel the second is fifteen, almost sixteen- three years can make a lot of difference in the education system."

"Very amusing, Alois," was the un-amused response.

Half an hour later, attired in a smart blouse and shorts, to keep up the impression that he was fully Earl Ciel Phantomhive, Ciel stood at the entrance of Weston College accompanied by his butler.

Ciel pushed open the door to find Grell, dressed in his customary red outfit, including his aunt's coat, waiting in the entryway.

"Hello Sebas-chan and brat," he greeted rudely. "Will is waiting in his office."

"Why do you always wear the same outfit," Ciel asked to annoy him.

At his side Sebastian smirked. His young master was certainly getting into character- the original Ciel had always been poor at acting so he was glad he had suggested merging and he was sure that his young master would spent the rest of his life feeling guilty. Besides, he had always wondered why someone like Grell, who cared so much about his appearance always wore the same clothes.

Grell screeched. "I can't take this! It's only half seven in the morning. Just follow me to Will's office and don't say anything to me on the way, brat."

Ciel raised his eyebrows at the mention of morning before remembering that Will had told him that the Grim Reapers actually needed sleep, unlike demons. The butler and master followed the reaper down several school corridors which were familiar to Ciel as he had been a pupil at this Weston College for three and a half years, but he had also never been here before.

The door to Will's office was open and Ciel immediately spotted that almost everything had been removed from the office like the hole punch and stapler on the desk as well as the potted plants that had been on the windowsill.

The headmaster was sat at the desk writing something in his notebook and looked up as they entered and nodded in welcome. Will pulled out a sheet of paper from his notebook and passed it to Ciel who raised his eyebrows when he saw the events and locations.

"Apparently London Bridge will fall in nineteen years time," he commented with a smile as he thought of the old children's song. "How ironic."

"Now that I have given you that we can all leave now," Will said and snapped his notebook shut.

"Already?" Ciel was surprised as he had expected them to stay around for a while to check that there was no way that they could obtain control of Sebastian.

"There is no time left. I have arranged all administrative matters and given you the list. I have nothing left to do here."

"Have you already found a new Head teacher, History teacher, Science teacher and a security guard to replace everyone?" Sebastian enquired.

Will nodded. "The new head teacher is someone that you both know quite well and he was very willing to take the job."

Ciel began to get a bad feeling about his future school life with a certain long grey haired reaper in charge. "Your replacement wouldn't happen to be... Undertaker?" he asked cautiously.

"It is. The replacement History teacher is the one Sutcliffe replaced this year, there is no real need for a security guard and the other science teachers can work together to take over the deceased science teacher's lessons until Undertaker can find a suitable applicant himself," Will informed him with a trace of a smile on his face.

"The uniform may also change as it has served its purpose ," Grell added as he was feeling left out.

"The situation that you set up was very well arranged," Sebastian complimented Will. "It would have worked if the second Ciel Phantomhive had known nothing about his ancestor."

"There's nothing worse than a smug demon," Will muttered darkly. "It's time for us to leave now, so could you both vacate the premises."

The former head master locked the office door behind them and they all walked outside together, Grim Reapers, Demon and human together.

"Good bye," Ciel said as he and Sebastian walked out the front gate with the list. He saw Will give him a suspicious look so he added an insult. "Don't forget to wash your clothes once in a while, Sutcliffe."

"Good bye, Phantomhive. If you don't carry out what I have ordered, I will come and slash you with a death scythe myself," Will threatened.

Ciel nodded in reply and he and Sebastian started to walk home. As they were halfway down the road, Ciel turned back to see that the school gates were now closed and that the Grim Reapers had disappeared. The sun was now beginning to rise and light up the grey sky.

Ciel smiled as he was now able to relax without having to worry about the reapers.

"Ciel, it would be best if we hurried home. I have to get back in time to make preparations for breakfast."

Without waiting for his master's reply, he scooped him up into his arms and ran back to the townhouse. They climbed in through Sebastian's bedroom window which he had kept open for convenience.

When they entered the kitchen they found Alois waiting for them. The blonde was eating a bowl of cereal and chocolate milk.

"Is it me or did you both come out of Sebastian's bedroom? Looks like my remark about the relationship between the two of you in the 19th Century was right on the mark," he said with a smirk. "By the way Ciel, I've used the last chocolate milk."

"Not funny, Alois," Ciel scowled.

"That reminds me, I was going to talk to you about eating less sugar and chocolate," Sebastian said to his master. "Now that you know that you are going to live to a ripe old age, I suggest that you limit your intake, so no more chocolate milk for you. It is a butler's duty to look after his master after all. Trancy, eat what you like."

The boy pulled a sour face before sitting down at the table next to Alois who smirked at him. As Sebastian was pouring Ciel a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice which was high in Vitamin C, Ciel's parents entered the kitchen.

"You're all up early, like it's a school day," Rachel commented amusedly.

"Have you thought about what sort of product that you are going to help me design?" Vincent enquired as he sat down at the kitchen table.

His son spread demon-approved Cherry jam across his toast- cherries were a good source of antioxidants, as he thought of some ideas. Back in the 19th Century Bitter Rabbit had been one of his bestselling products.

"What about reviving Bitter Rabbit?" he suggested.

His father looked surprised as he had been sure that his son only knew a little about Funtom's history.

"You mean the stuffed rabbit with an eye patch?"

Ciel nodded as his mouth was full of toast. His butler answered for him.

"Currently Victorian influenced textile items are in fashion and products like Bitter Rabbit would sell well to Japanese teenagers as they seem to like stuffed and mutilated animals."

"So you think that we should sell our products in other countries too? That is an idea."

Later that morning, Ciel entered the library to search for the catalogue of past Funtom products which was kept there and found his butler staring out of the window with Ciel's final journal in his hands. As Ciel approached he closed it gently and turned to face his master.

"That was a very pleasant read, Ciel," the butler said with a genuine smile, happy that he finally knew his master's true feelings for him. "I didn't know that you liked me that much."

"Just don't act too smug about it," Ciel scowled.

"Only if you promise that you will never love anyone else like you love me."

"If I did, would you get jealous?" his master asked playfully.

Sebastian bent down so that their faces were at the same level. "Very," he whispered into Ciel's ear before giving it a playful bite. "You're mine, Ciel."

His master felt his face heat up like the sun and he squirmed away from the teasing demon who was clearly taking pleasure in his embarrassment.

"When are you going to take my soul? I have obtained revenge as Earl Ciel Phantomhive and it isn't fair that you can't eat other souls whilst you are contracted to me."

In reply Sebastian simply rolled his eyes. "I'm not going to take your soul anytime soon and I do not care about other people's souls: I only desire yours," he answered exasperatedly. "Do not try anything like you tried last time."

"But-," Sebastian placed a finger over Ciel's lips.

"I will take your soul just before you die- I'm not stealing your life away from you this time."

"What if you get hungry when we are still contracted?" Ciel said in a voice muffled by Sebastian's finger.

Sebastian laughed. If his master hadn't merged with his descendant he would have never have asked that question- he had never asked it when they were first contracted in the 19th Century.

"Hunger is the best seasoning. In any case I can always have a little taste."

To demonstrate he licked Ciel's cheek. "You really do taste delicious, Ciel."

His master's face flushed an even brighter red.

"You are very cute, Ciel. I look forward to spending a lot of time teasing you," he said and wrapped his arms around him tightly. "If you wore those cat ears again, it would make you even cuter."

The playful butler and his red faced master were finally together again after 123 years of anguish and they had now promised to spend their lifetimes dedicated to each other. Outside the library window the sun was high in the sky and was unusually bright considering the season was winter which signified a bright future for the pair of them.

* * *

 

**The End**


	3. Omake

** Reincarnation **

**Chapter 22:**

2 months later:

The devoted butler stared out of the kitchen, waiting for his master to return home. This was a daily occurrence, but today was different as it was Results Day. His master would have received the results of his January exams which Sebastian had personally helped him revise for. Ciel's algebra had been slightly lacking polish not to mention is abysmal use of connectives in his practice English Language papers.

He waited dutifully for the boy to return home with his exam results whilst he watched the clock.

Tick. Tock.

2 minutes went past.

Tick. Tock.

School had ended now.

Tick. Tock.

20 minutes slithered past at a snail's pace.

Ciel should be coming home now.

Tick. Tock.

Another 10 minutes on the clock.

Sebastian began to become concerned. His master was always punctual for everything. It wasn't like him to be late. Maybe he had been delayed by Undertaker again who loved to keep him behind and tease him.

The demon sighed. It seemed as if he was going to have to go and see what had become of his master and he would probably end up having to rescue him from Undertaker's office for the fifth time in a row.

Vincent Phantomhive was at a company meeting and his wife was away visiting friends in the west country so he had an opportunity.

Sebastian changed from his butler outfit into a more casual and modern outfit so he wouldn't stand out too much and if Ciel was indeed with Undertaker, the retired Grim Reaper might stop calling him Mr Butler.

He started with retracing Ciel's walk to school and only encountered other children coming out late from Weston College. On his way back he spotted a familiar blonde head.

"Alois Trancy!" he called out.

Alois turned around and Sebastian spotted that the boy had earphones in his ears, something that Sebastian had never seen him with before which indicated that he hadn't been planning to walk with Ciel.

"Hello Sebastian," Alois said and raised his eyebrows at the demon's attire. "What are you doing out?"

"I'm looking for Ciel. Have you seen him?" he enquired and observed that the blonde's expression had changed from amused to guarded.

"He has something to do after school. He will be back later."

"What is he doing?" Ciel didn't participate in any afterschool activities or clubs so Sebastian was suspicious.

"You know Ciel does Business, as in the subject?"

Sebastian nodded and tried to deduce the connection.

"There's a Cake Bake at school tomorrow which is being run by Ciel's Business class and he had gone to purchase ingredients."

The butler felt a little hurt. His master was always complimenting the cakes that he made, so why did he not request him to make one for his sale?

Alois saw the momentary flicker of disappointment on the demon's face and took pity on him.

"The cakes at bake sales are generally very artificially coloured and are covered in mountains of sprinkles which are normally psychedelic in colour and make you hyperactive. You banned artificial colourings for Ciel's health after all. Also, the cakes you make look too perfect, like they are shop bought, no one very buys cakes that look shop bought," he explained in detail before adding. "Ciel the second was actually quite good at cooking so you don't need to worry about the kitchen being blown up."

This brought a certain cigarette toting chef to mind. "I shall go and help him choose," Sebastian said thoughtfully. "Trancy, where did he go?"

"I think it would be best if you left him alone," Alois advised cautiously. "He left school with someone who is in his Business class."

Sebastian narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "Is there something that you are keeping back from me? Who is Ciel with?"

Alois debated between flight or flight as he had a feeling that he was back on the demon's bad side which was somewhere he didn't want to be- Sebastian would give him an unhealthy packed lunch again and give Ciel a Japanese Style Bento to make him feel worse.

"His is with a girl who is Elizabeth Midford's descendant, who is descended from her brother as she never married or had children," Alois informed him.

Sebastian's eyes flashed a dangerous red. "Why was this never mentioned before now?"

"Ciel the second never paid much attention to her, he always said that she was annoyingly air headed and spent more time admiring cute things than doing her work. However, since his soul was merged with the other Ciel, he has been quite friendly to her since he traced her family tree back to his former fiancée. "

"By any chance, does she look like Lady Elizabeth?" the demon enquired in a dangerous tone.

"According to Ciel, yes."

"How does she feel about him?"

Alois gulped. He had known that demon was going to ask him that question which he had been dreading and he also knew that Sebastian was not going to like the answer.

"I take it that you know about social networking sites?" he began as he drew his mobile phone out of his pocket.

"Yes. They are popular with a lot of humans who have nothing better to do than talk about their day."

"Well said. On some sites you can create fan pages from anything from fictional characters to real people," Alois held up his phone so Sebastian could see the Ciel Phantomhive fan page. "Guess who is the creator of this page?"

Sebastian cracked his knuckles and Alois hastily put his phone away.

"Thank you for your information. I will go and retrieve Ciel now," the butler said and ran off leaving a surprised Alois staring after him in amusement.

Ciel felt a prick in his right eye and he knew that Sebastian had used the connection between them to track him down. He eyed the nearest reflective surface for a view of the street behind him. For a minute there was no one of any interest. Then a black haired figure appeared with a malevolent glare.

He smirked. Alois must have informed him about the cake sale and maybe about Elizabeth Midford's descendant.

"Ciel! What do you think of these cake decorations?"

He turned to see Lizzie's descendant holding up a selection of sprinkles.

"They are nice, Bethany, but how about buying some other colours besides pink," he advised and took one pot off her for fear that she could buy nothing but pink cake decorations. "Boys aren't going to buy any if all the cakes are pink. If that happens our grade will go down for making a poor business decision."

She blinked. "You're so clever Ciel. I don't know where I would be without you. Ooh, what about getting these rainbow sprinkles and those cutters over there look adorable!"

Ciel glanced in the indicated direction and winced. "Yes to the sprinkles, no to the cat shaped cutters. Not many people are cat lovers so cakes decorated with cats will not sell well."

"On the contrary, I would a buy a cat themed cake," a familiar voice said behind him.

"Hello Sebastian," Ciel said without turning around. "People who are allergic to cats may not want to buy cat themed cakes."

"You are so petty, young master and you have not introduced me to your friend yet."

Ciel turned round to find himself face to face with a clearly annoyed Sebastian and he noted the renewed use of "young master."

"Bethany, this is my butler Sebastian Michaelis. Sebastian, this is Bethany Midford. I recently discovered that we are distantly related."

"That is wonderful to hear, young master. It's nice to meet you, Miss Midford," Sebastian said with a bow. "Young master, remember not to stay out too late with your friend; it is getting dark."

"Actually we are just about finished now so we can both go home," Bethany said and deposited the pack of rainbow sprinkles into her basket."Mr Michaelis, do you think that I should buy the cat shaped decorations?"

"Absolutely, Miss Midford."

* * *

 

The teenage Earl creamed together butter and sugar before adding eggs followed by milk and he was in the process of sieving the cocoa powder when Sebastian walked in to see that mess that he had made.

"Look at what you have to my apron," he despaired. "Alois Trancy told me that you were good at cooking."

"You're the one that suggested that I should be a combination of Ciel the first and Ciel the second. Stop complaining," Ciel reprimanded as he turned the electric whisk back on and sprayed cake mix up the kitchen tiles causing his butler to wince.

Ciel poured the mixture into bun cases and placed them in the oven before licking the spoons. Sebastian was aghast at the action.

"There is raw egg in that! You could get Salmonella from that."

The boy rolled his eyes and stood one his tiptoes to reach Sebastian's mouth so he could allow the demon to have a taste, using his chocolate cake mixture covered lips.

"What do you think?"

"You know that I don't have a sense of taste, but I'm sure that it tastes delicious. The consistency seems to be fine at least."

"Thank you," Ciel accepted the compliment as he weighed out ingredients for another batch. "What did you think of Bethany Midford?"

Sebastian's eyes narrowed. The girl was on his good side due to her love of cats, but she had been getting too close to his master. "She did resemble Lady Elizabeth is some aspects, but she didn't have the hint of hidden strength that Lady Elizabeth had. Ciel, were you trying to make me jealous?"

His master averted his eyes. "I've been bored for a while so I thought I would liven things up. I like my life as it is, but endless revising for exams can get monotonous sometimes. It did work, didn't it?"

The butler sighed. "I suppose it livened up my day. In this era we don't have the idiot trio of servants to blow things up so I will admit that it is rather quiet."

Ciel poured the sugar into another mixing bowl with half of it missing the bowl and going all over the worktop. A vein pulsed in Sebastian's forehead.

"Ciel, would you like me to finish making those cakes for you?" he asked sweetly and reached his hand to grab the mixing bowl.

"No!" the boy said and swatted his hand away with a wooden spoon. "I'm having fun watching your distress. I might cook more often. After all I still have the June exam series to revise for and I need some breaks in revision."

Sebastian groaned before relenting as he was obligated to follow his master's orders. "You may cook again, I think that seeing you with someone that acts like a vapid version of Lady Elizabeth is more annoying-" he broke off as Ciel cracked an egg and promptly missing the bowl. "Are you missing deliberately?"

Ciel stuck his tongue out in reply, forcing the butler to admit that his master had livened up his afternoon and looked set to continue the pattern for the rest of his life.

* * *

 

**Author's Notes:**

**Bethany is not my real name (don't worry, it is not a self insert), it was the closest name to Elizabeth that I could come up with and it is a very common name in England for people around my age. I had 5 of them in my year at school.**

**Author's Note:**

> English Secondary School system:
> 
> You start the first year, Year 7 at the age of 11 and you leave at the end of Year 11 at the age of 16 having completed GCSEs.
> 
> Before school there is registration with a form tutor for half an hour where you are registered and do activities as a form.
> 
> (I thought that I should explain this to make this chapter less confusing)
> 
> In Vitro Fertilisation is process in which the a egg is fertilised by sperm outside the body.
> 
> Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis refers to the procedures that are performed on embryos prior to implantation.
> 
> I briefly studied both at school a few years ago and looked at the moral and ethical implications as some people can select an embryo to implant just because it has desirable feature like blonde hair and blue eyes.
> 
> If anyone wants to know about it in more detail I would recommend researching it
> 
> *: This fact is actually true. However women were allowed to be in same sex relationships.
> 
> If you have done GCSE English Literature it very likely that you will know Act 3, Scene 1 of Romeo and Juliet very well... It is a teacher favourite as is Of Mice and Men and you have to know it in detail to get a high grade.
> 
> I also occasionally use Pathetic Fallacy in my fanfics, but this is the first time I have used it in this particular one.
> 
> Some of the events in this chapter are based on real events that happened at my school. There was a coursework fiasco last year, but the mistakes were picked up one week before it was due to be moderated by the exam board and the students used that week to correct all the mistakes.
> 
> The teacher is named after Michael Gove who is the Secretary of State for Education and no one is very fond of him at the moment in school and the January exam series has been terminated and keeps trying to completely change the curriculum.


End file.
